MileSplit IN End-of-Season Awards Individual Performances
Cross Country is largely based upon individuals doing their best to help their teams score less points. At the end of the day, even though cross country is very much a team sport, it is one runner going head-to-head in an individual race against another runner.
We are going to recognize two different types of individual achievements with the installment of the XC Awards.
- Top Individual Single Performance
- Breakout Runner of the Year
These awards are meant to catch some of the finest single and individual performances from an outstanding season of cross country. We are purposely only recognizing one award per person, so please keep that in mind when looking at our selections.
Top Individual Single Performance - Male
This award is meant to recognize the single best race of the season. The selection criteria included the importance of the meet, the overall placing of the individual, how they competed against other Hoosiers, and the overall mark it made on the season. In other words- what race really made fans, coaches, and other athletes take notice.
The male award goes to Kole Mathison of Carmel for his performance at the RunningLane National Championships.
Mathison ran most of the race chasing right behind the top-ranked runners in the nation on John Hunt Cross Country Course in Huntsville. Mathison hung very tough and finished only 20 seconds behind the top-ranked runners in the country to finish ninth overall. He was the first Hoosier to cross the line by about 14 seconds as well.
His placing earned him All-American status at the meet. His time of 14:23 becomes the fastest time from an Indiana high school athlete on the grass.
