Motivated by a top-25 national ranking, it's easy to understand why Wade Meddles is excited as he looks toward an important stretch on his fall cross country schedule. At the same time, the Sierra Lutheran High School senior has his sights cast further down the road.
"I'm going to be busy," Meddles said, flashing a grin. "I have some big races coming up, but my main goal for this cross country season is to make the Foot Locker team and to compete with those runners."
It all starts with the Stanford Invitational on Saturday, followed by the Clovis Invitational on Oct. 10 in Fresno, Calif., and then the Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 24 in Southern California. All three races will provide opportunities to compete against elite runners for Meddles, who has been listed as high as No. 21 in the Dyestat.com high school national rankings. However, his ultimate goal is to run at the Foot Locker National Championships on Dec. 12 at Balboa Park in San Diego.
Meddles will need a top-10 finish one week before at the West Regional at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., a lofty goal considering only one other northern Nevada boy has ever qualified for the national meet - Bryan Carroll of Douglas High (who later ran at Kansas State University) in 1982. Meddles nearly made it last year, only to see Steve Magnuson of Oro Valley, Ariz., surge past him on the homestretch to grab the 10th and final qualifying berth to nationals.
"Definitely, the Foot Locker race last year was a wake-up call for me," Meddles said. "I was there (10th) then got to the track and with 50 meters to go, he just blew by me. It was kind of devastating to do all that work and get beat at the end."
Last year marked the first cross country season for Meddles, who transferred from Smith Valley to Sierra Lutheran after the end of his sophomore year, so chalk it up to a lesson learned. Consider the lesson learned because Meddles put in time over the winter and then in the spring to build his strength and speed.
"He's done more lifting and speed work and all the work is paying off," Sierra Lutheran coach Dave Marson said. "Now, he believes he can run with anybody coming down the stretch."
In two races already, Meddles has run comfortably out front at the Nevada Jim Vanden Heuvel Twilight and Reed invitationals, including a meet record performance at the latter race. And Sierra Lutheran is off to a strong start in its bid to repeat as state 2A champion (Meddles is the defending state 2A individual champion) after placing second behind Carson at the 4A-dominated Reed Invitational.
"We're trying to make our mark as a team," Marson said of a Sierra Lutheran cross country program that has 24 runners out of a total school enrollment of 78 students. "The whole team will be running in the elite divisions at these meets and to compete with the best in the country only motivates them."
Meddles has his sights set on running sub-15 minutes for 5,000 meters, the magical barrier for a distance that is standard for high school cross country. He ran 15:28 to win his division last year at Stanford and later ran 15:53 at the West Regional on an extremely difficult Mt. SAC course, so the goal appears within reach.
"That would be a big blessing. I definitely think I'm the strongest I've ever been and I learn more every race I run, even the smaller races. We'll just have to see what happens," Meddles said.
"You're talking about a pretty elite group of high school runners who have done that," Marson added of the 15-minute barrier. "The opportunity has to be right and the conditions have to be right. Our goal is just to take it one race at a time. It's a long season and we want to peak at the right time."
