Sanderson cross country
Sanderson's Philip Hathaway (right) fought his way to 17th place at Saturday's 4-A NCHSAA boys cross country state meet at Tanglewood. Hathaway was one of four Spartans to place in the Top 20, helping the squad capture the 4-A state championship.
Strength in numbersSpartans win 4-A state boys cross country title
As Sanderson's Patrick Crawford walked away from the finish line following Saturday's 4-A NCHSAA boys cross country state meet at Tanglewood— the seventh and final Spartan to finish — he looked to a friend and wanted to know the results.
Not his, but the team's.
"I don't care about how I did, how did the team do?" he said in the enervate voice you'd expect from someone who just ran all-out for five kilometers.
An hour later, at the championships' awards presentation. Crawford received an answer — the Spartans had no equal.
Click here to see the finishes from Saturday's 4-A state boys and girls cross country meets.
As runner-up honors were announced for Cap-7 Conference rival Broughton — the awards were given in reverse order from 10th place to first — a large contingent of Sanderson fans and runners exploded in celebration.
Led by Matt Schick's 13th-place finish, one of four Spartans to place in the Top 20, Sanderson nipped the Capitals 89-92 for the 4-A state championship.
"You can't put words to it. It's just so overwhelming," said Philip Hathaway, who finished 17th, following the victory. "It's completely a team effort. The race couldn't have gone better. Our plan was to pack it up for the first mile, and do whatever we could from there. Just as the coaches told us, 'run the first part with your mind, second part with your personality and the third part with your heart. That's what we did."
The victory proved that Spartans greatest strength was its strength in numbers.
Behind Schick and Hathaway, Matt Giesz and Mitchell Feldman finished back-to-back at 19th and 20th, Andrew White placed 54th, Ben Boyles took 81th and Crawford captured 114th.
(East Forsyth's Patrick Crawford — who shared the same name as the Sanderson runner — captured the individual state championship, finishing in 15:47. And Wakefield's Mitch Mallory posted an impressive finish, grabbing fourth overall. For more on Mallory, see here.)
According to Sanderson coach Jason Bochert, the Spartans have stressed the team's results above all else this season. Saturday was no different.
"That has been our emphasis the whole year," he said. "How we do individually takes a backseat to what we want to accomplish as a team. It's sort of like an engine in a car. You have to have all seven pistons fire correctly. And if they don't, that engine is going to fail. Same thing with a team. All seven pistons fired right today. And the engine was a Ferrari."
Having split victories with Broughton all season — Sanderson took the Cap-7 Conference title, a week later the Capitals won the Mideast Regional — the Spartans knew the competition would be stiff.
But as Bochert pointed out, there was confidence in knowing Sanderson had won its fair share against Broughton and the state's other elite.
"It helped that we had beaten Broughton before, and we had beaten every team in the race before," the coach said. "All year it's been back-and-forth, but we have at least beat them. And we know we can get it done."
And there were plenty of heroic storylines from the race.
Mitchell Feldman took 20th place Saturday, just one spot behind teammate Matt Geisz.
Schick shrugged off the pain of two stress fractures in his legs to pace the Spartans.
Hathaway came on late with a remarkable run, passing 12 runners in the last 800 meters.
"I've been running No. 4 for us the last three or four races, so this is really my break-out race," Hathaway said. "I have been waiting for this for two or three years. This is something special."
And Boyles continued to build on his excellent year, making the biggest strides of any Spartan from last year to this season, according to teammates.
Before the season started, Bochert — who coach Pinecrest to a state championship in 2004 — saw title potential in the Spartans.
"We thought it would be a possibility," he said. "We had a senior-laden team, and we had a good shot. We just went into it with a lot of confidence. And just tried to instill in them that if they believed, they could do it.
"I can't say enough about our guys' dedication. They put in the miles all summer long. They really believed."
Schick said the state title rewards the Spartans' struggles and sacrifices.
"We came together at the right time, and we knew what had to be done," he said. "Sanderson's never done something like this.
And it makes all the pain we've gone through and all the hard work worth it.
"This is just a dream come true. It is the greatest thing to ever happen."
Other notable finishes from Saturday included Broughton's Reidy Jones and Pierre Malherbe taking seventh and ninth, and Leesville Road's Aaron Smith finishing 36th.
