Athlete: Ross Wilson
Year: Senior
School: Council Rock North High School
Location: Newtown, PA
Mile PR: 4:15.09
3200m PR: 8:56.29
Ross Wilson of Council Rock North High School saved his best race for last at the Pennsylvania state championships. On May 24, Wilson, a senior headed to the University of Pennsylvania, ran a big PR of 8:56.29 in the 3200m to win a state title. The time broke a 31-year-old state meet record and he is still savoring the victory. Wilson, who will graduate on June 19, decided to end the season and his high school career, after his record-breaking performance.
Last Chance: Wilson went into the state 3200m itching for a final shot at Henderson star Tony Russell, who had beaten him in six straight races. Russell’s victories included wins at the Nike Cross Nationals Northeast Regional, the New Balance Grand Prix indoor mile, and anchoring Henderson to the Penn Relays distance medley title. Russell beat Wilson in the 2-mile 9:00.34 to 9:04.77 at the Nike Henderson Invitational on May 2 in their final meeting before states.
State Mindset: Russell’s season-long dominance did not deter Wilson. “Every race I go into, I tell myself I’m going to win,” says Wilson. “I’ve been wrong more times than right, but I don’t let that affect me. That positive mindset helped me going into state.”
Training Experiment: As positive as Wilson was, how could he out run a savvy champion like Russell? North coach Dave Marrington suggested Wilson try something new in his final tune-up. “We noticed that Tony liked to throw in a mid-race surge,” says Marrington. “To prepare for that, I had Ross run repeat 1800s instead of the usual 1600s. The idea was to go through the 1600m at race pace, and then surge for 200m.”
Workout Intensity: Four days before the state meet, Wilson ran 2 x 1800m, trying to go through the 1600m in 4:30, then sprinting another 200m in 31 seconds. He took a 4-minute recovery jog in between. The first repeat went perfectly, but Wilson was too slow on the second one. He was so upset that he spontaneously flew into another 800m, which he ran in 2:08. “Ross had fire in his eyes,” says Marrington.
State Showdown: The training innovation proved fortuitous in the state 3200m. After the opening 1600m went in 4:30, Russell surged ahead with a 65-second lap. Wilson was able to cover the move. With a little more than 400m to go, Russell surged again, building a 3-second gap on the backstretch of the bell lap. A third contender, Colin Martin of Fox Chapel, inched ahead of Wilson. “Something clicked in me,” Wilson says. “I thought, ‘This is my last high school race. I’m not settling for another second or third. I dug deep down, found a gear I didn’t know I had and ran them down in the last 70 meters.” Wilson’s 8:56.29 erased the 1983 state meet record of 8:58.90. Russell, second, was also under the old record in 8:58.26. Martin took third in 8:59.90. “I dreamed of this for four years,” Wilson says.
Foot Locker: Prior to state, Wilson’s most notable achievement was making the Foot Locker cross country national meet last fall. He did it by the slimmest of margins. At the Northeast Regional, Wilson was in a pack of four runners in fighting for eighth to 11th place on the homestretch at Van Cortlandt Park. The top 10 would qualify for nationals. One athlete from that quartet would be left home. “It was the most nervous I’d ever been during a race,” Wilson says. He drove home for all he was worth to snatch 10th place by 0.3 seconds, thanks to his 90-mile training weeks in August and late season speed work.
Finals Race: Wilson became the fourth Foot Locker boys’ finalist from Council Rock North under coach Marrington. After his 10th place regional finish, Wilson figured he would be running in the middle of the pack in San Diego and took the nationals weekend as icing on the cake after months of hard work. “All the stress was gone,” says Wilson, who was satisfied with his 26th place.
Star Power: Wilson, along with Russell, was part of this year’s Pennsylvania distance armada that was led by Foot Locker girls’ champion Tessa Barrett, the Abington Heights senior who also won the national indoor 2-mile and 5,000m in record time.
Court Sense: Despite his parents’ involvement in running–Wilson’s father, Paul, is a high school track coach, and his mother, Lisa, ran for Penn State–Wilson faced no pressure in his youth to take up running. Instead, in middle school, he played football and basketball. Then, as a North freshman, he went out for cross country and ran a 5K in 16:48. Wilson, who is 5-foot-11, also played on the North basketball team before dropping it after his sophomore year to concentrate on running.
Street Games: As a youngster, Wilson played street hockey on roller skates. One day, at age 7, he was smacked in the mouth with a hockey stick, knocking a tooth into his gums. In a long, difficult process, the tooth was ultimately extracted. Wilson still wears a retainer with what he calls a “fake tooth” to fill the gap.
Marc Bloom’s high school cross-country rankings have played an influential role in the sport for more than 20 years and led to the creation of many major events, including Nike Cross Nationals and the Great American Cross Country Festival. He published his cross-country journal, Harrier, for more than two decades.
