Published: November 25, 2009 07:30 pm      

Leaders of the pack

Bruner, Nieto set successful pace

You’ve got to stick together. It’s one of the oldest pieces of advice in the world, given in situations both seemingly simple, like a trip to the grocery store as parents admonish their children to take care of one another along the way, and life-and-death, like a military officer advising his troops before a risky mission. And it’s one that cross country coaches have come to value as well, knowing that having a team run as a pack boasts a multitude of benefits.

Those benefits range from the physical effect of dropping the slowest runner’s time below what he might believe himself capable to the psychological damage done when a group of guys or girls wearing the same uniform swarms past one lonely competitor on the trail. Stick together and everyone gets better. Of that, there’s little doubt in cross country.

But here’s the thing perhaps not as often mentioned in the aim of emphasizing team — even when you’re going at a goal as a group, someone has to lead the way.

In putting together a doubly successful season, Dalton High School’s cross country program did not have that problem.

The Catamounts stuck together all year as one of the most competitive teams week in and out in Chattanooga Cross Country League competition, then pack-ran their way the Region 7-4A championship on Oct. 31 at Taylor Farms in Powder Springs — the top five Cats turned in sub-18-minute performances on the 5-kilometer course and got a boost when their No. 6 and 7 runners helped break a tie with Allatoona.

But Andrew Bruner, as he was all season long, was first that day.

The Lady Cats also kept each other close, developing a consistent lineup that helped them secure a fifth consecutive trip to the Class 4A state meet in Carrollton via a third-place finish at the region meet.

Their leader that day in Powder Springs? Just as for most of the season, it was Carina Nieto.

Both of Dalton’s cross country teams were stocked with talent this season — that’s the only way to get the type of results the Cats and Lady Cats did this year. But both were lifted by the leadership provided by Bruner and Nieto, who for their efforts have been selected The Daily Citizen’s All-Area Cross Country Runners of the Year for 2009.

How would Dalton’s seasons gone without the guidance of Bruner, a senior, and Nieto, a junior?

“It would have made a huge difference,” said Karen Galyon, for whom 2009 was her third year as head coach at Dalton following two as an assistant. “With them being out in first place, everybody else tries to get up there with them. With them being as fast as they are, it makes everybody else faster and that’s what’s gotten us where we are this season.”

Joining Bruner — a unanimous selection for ROY — in the boys all-area lineup are teammate Christian Pineda, Murray County’s Josh Stanley, North Murray’s Isaac Pacheco and Southeast’s Josue Limas. Earning honorable mention are Dalton’s Fernando Morales, a senior, and Northwest’s Jordan Jones, a sophomore.

Joining Nieto in the girls all-area lineup are teammates Meral Henton, Bekah Houston and Paxton Plunkett, as well as Murray County’s Melissa Ortiz. Earning honorable mention are Northwest Whitfield’s Shelby Whitfield and Natalie Williams.

All-area and ROY selections were voted on by area coaches and The Daily Citizen’s sports staff.

Bruner broke the 18-minute mark several times this season, including at the region meet, where he finished in 17:28, a personal-best record, to claim eighth place. When he turned in a 17:41 the following week at state, he was 34th for the best result among local runners. Some of this season’s success came as a surprise to Bruner, who said he’d dropped only about 15 seconds in average time from a strong freshman season to the end of his junior season before taking big cut this year — about 18 seconds from 2008 to 2009 — which he credited to physical maturity.

But while the times and places Bruner contributed were important on their own, he made an even bigger contribution by being the kind of leader teammates trusted to set the pace for good training runs and successful races. That part of being at the front of the pack seemed to be no problem for Bruner.

“I just really love being a part of the team and leading it, having all my friends out there,” said Bruner, who also earned all-area honors as a freshman. “It’s just nice to be up there. We run together all year and it’s just like we’re all a big group. I think I hold a pretty consistent pace.”

While talented lead runners have the ability to bring slower teammates along by challenging them to set a more rigorous pace than they’d find natural, they can also help slow down the comrade who’s a little too quick out of the gate — and for that, Pineda was glad to have Bruner.

“I’m not real good at the first mile,” Pineda said. “I take off pretty fast, but he keeps me where I need to be so I can do my best in the races. And it’s the same with everyone else. He sets the pace, he tells us what to run.”

Galyon saw that plan in action often this season.

“He is good about getting others involved,” she said. “All those varsity boys have been close on times and he’s been leading the pack. He’s got an even temperament when he goes out and runs. He doesn’t have too many ups and downs ... and he has the influence to let them see what needs to be done as far as workouts and that sort of thing.”

Bruner doesn’t expect to be competing for a college team next year as he begins that phase of his education, but that doesn’t mean he’s done with running. Road races have long been a tradition for his family — his mother, Margie, even helps coach Dalton High’s girls — and he expects to continue giving that part of competition his attention. Bruner, who ran his first 5K as a first grader, is even training for his first marathon early next year.

And it’s also because of that family tradition that being named ROY is perhaps a bit more special for Bruner than it might be for most.

He joins his late brother John, The Daily Citizen’s 2005 Co-ROY, on the list of Dalton runners — Daniel Grass claimed back-to-back ROY awards in 2006 and 2007 — who have earned the honor. John, who like Andrew led his team to a region championship in his senior season, died during a 2007 road race in Chattanooga at the age of 19 as the result of a coronary artery anomaly.

“It’s just great to feel like I’m following in his footsteps,” Bruner said. “He always tried really hard and he never complained. He was just all-around good.”

For Galyon, what sets Nieto apart is a competitive streak that no coach or teammate can instill, though they can certainly push it. And for the Dalton girls, that was a formula that worked in 2009.

Nieto would run faster, bringing along her teammates. Seeing her teammates catch up made Nieto want to go faster. It was a cycle that rewarded both the leader and her followers.

“Carina hates to be beaten and she only knows one pace and that is all-out,” Galyon said. “She’s willing to run just as hard as she possibly can in every race.”

Nieto’s season peaked almost perfectly when she turned in an all-time personal best of 20:12 for second place at the Region 7-4A meet, though she was frustrated a week later when illness forced her to drop out early during the state meet. But that shouldn’t overshadow the standout performances she regularly delivered as the pacesetter for the Lady Cats.

“I think I did pretty good this year,” said Nieto, who also made the all-area team as a sophomore and earned honorable mention as a freshman.

“I feel stronger than last year and my freshman year and I feel like I’m getting faster.”

Running under the 21-minute mark regularly during the second half of the season, Nieto was an example to her teammates with her actions and seeking to keep up with her was as good a goal as any on race day. She developed a symbiotic relationship with Houston, a freshman, along the way.

“A lot of times Carina would be first, but sometimes Bekah would edge her out,” said Galyon, who said she sometimes has to encourage Nieto to take rest days during offseason training. “But it made both of them faster.”

Interestingly, Nieto started running as a freshman simply as a way to keep in shape and “didn’t really know what she was getting into,” she said. But the competitor she unleashed with that first season — inspired, she said, by former Lady Cats standout Rocio Jacobo, herself an all-area runner — has gained a lot from running and given even more back to Dalton cross country.

“If I start doing a sport, I want to do it forever,” Nieto said. “I want to support my team.”

Here’s a look at the rest of the lineup for this year’s all-area teams:

All-Area Boys

• Josue Limas, Sr., Southeast: Also a reliable force for the Raiders during the spring track and field season, Limas was Southeast’s brightest spot this fall both for his results on the course and what he brought to the program as an example for younger runners. He qualified for the state meet for the third consecutive season by finishing fifth with a time of 17:45 at the Region 6-3A meet — the same place, though three seconds better than he had achieved as a junior — and was 81st in 18:23 the following week at the Class 3A state meet. He also turned in a season best of 18:14 at the Berry Invitational in early September. Limas — who has aspirations of running in college and is also an excellent student, according to Southeast coach Jacki Hasty — is making his first all-area appearance after earning honorable mention in 2008.

• Isaac Pacheco, Fr., North Murray: Although he might have been at risk of flying under the radar as a freshman at first-year a program, Pacheco’s results and his determination on the course obviously caught the attention of coaches beyond the North Murray camp, who overwhelmingly supported his inclusion on the all-area team. Pacheco — who’s coached by Keith Robinette but also receives extra training advice from his father, Rafael P. Gonzalez, who was once part of a highly-ranked university team in Mexico — follows in the footsteps of his brother, Rafael, who was an all-area selection as a senior at Murray County in 2008. Isaac was the Mountaineers’ top runner all season long, finishing ninth with a time of 18:06 at the 6-3A meet, just missing a trip to state, and had a personal best of 18:01 this year on the way to his first all-area appearance.

• Christian Pineda, Jr., Dalton: Pineda certainly seems to be a good candidate to fill the shoes Bruner is leaving behind for the Cats. Consistently the second runner for Dalton’s boys this season, like Bruner he was a top-20 finisher in the season standings among individuals in always-tough Chattanooga Cross Country League competition. He finished 12th at the Region 7-4A meet with a time of 17:42, not too far behind Bruner, and was 49th in 18:00 at state a week later. In addition to his sub-18-minute showing at region, Pineda also cracked the 6-minute-mile average at the CCCL’s Baylor meet as well as at the Front Runner Championships. Although he’ll have to wage his final high school cross country campaign without Bruner’s pacing partnership, the future looks bright for Pineda, a first-time all-area selection after earning honorable mention in 2008.

• Josh Stanley, Sr., Murray County: A midseason bout with the flu hurt Stanley’s effort to improve on a very impressive junior season in which he turned in several sub-17-minute performances and was named the 2008 Runner of the Year, but the veteran said he still had a lot of fun his final time out and was pleased with the overall improvement of the team in 2009. Although the Indians failed to return to Carrollton after qualifying as a team for the first time in program history in 2008, Stanley punched his ticket as an individual by running a season-best 17:13 at the 7-4A meet for fifth place, the best finish for any local runner that day. Although not at his best at state, he still cleared the 18-minute mark by less than a second and was among the top fifth of the field with his 47th-place finish. This is the third consecutive all-area appearance for Stanley.

All-Area Girls

• Meral Henton, Sr., Dalton: Although she was a newcomer to the sport — the former competition cheerleader decided to try something different in her final fall at Dalton — Henton didn’t show it, because she consistently showed up as the No. 3 runner for a talented Lady Cats team. She finished among the top 20 in the CCCL season standings, was 18th among individuals at the Region 7-4A meet with a 21:50 and 39th in the Class 4A state meet at 21:30. Henton, who turned in a personal-best time of 21:11 at the Patriot Invitational in mid-September, said she hopes to keep running competitively in some form in the future. Called a “natural distance runner” by Galyon, she’s obviously proven herself a good fit for the sport. This is her first all-area appearance.

• Bekah Houston, Fr., Dalton: If there are any concerns about the Lady Cats losing some of their competitive edge with the graduation of Henton or the fact that Nieto has only one season left, the dynamite effort given by Houston in her first high school season should take care of the fear. A top-20 runner this season in the CCCL, she claimed the highest finish among area girls with a 26th-place showing in 21:07 at state, stepping up to help offset the effect of Nieto dropping out in Carrollton as the Lady Cats still claimed a top-15 finish. That came a week after she was close to Nieto — 12 seconds behind, to be exact — while turning in a personal best of 20:24 for third place at the 7-4A meet. This is her first all-area appearance.

• Melissa Ortiz, Sr., Murray County: Although the 2008 Runner of the Year couldn’t quite match all the performances given during her junior season, she was still clearly among the area’s most talented athletes on race day and accomplished quite a bit in just two seasons of cross country after making the switch from softball prior to last year. She turned in a season-best 20:54 for ninth place at this season’s 7-4A meet, three places away from a second consecutive trip to Carrollton. (A year earlier, she was fifth in the region with a time of 20:34 on a slightly friendlier course in better weather conditions.) Among the other highlights for Ortiz, who is coached by Sam Young, was shaving 49 seconds off her time at this year’s Ridge Ferry Invitational compared to the 2008 event. This is her second appearance on the all-area team.

• Paxton Plunkett, So., Dalton: Helping to spread the talent out age-wise in the Lady Cats lineup by representing the sophomore class well, Plunkett’s steady improvement was an encouraging sign to Galyon, who seems to have built her program to the point of being able to restock the talent shelves without too much trouble each season. Although generally the fourth runner in for Dalton, her season-best time of 21:21 at region — good for 12th place overall — sprung her into the Lady Cats’ No. 3 spot. Breaking the 21-minute mark is no doubt among the next goals for Plunkett, who cut more than 30 seconds off her time at state between her freshman and sophomore seasons. This is the first all-area appearance for Plunkett, who earned honorable mention in 2008.