Kevin Agnew opted to extend his cross country season, two weeks following his top 5 showing at the OHSAA Division 2 state meet, by lining-up at the RunningLane National Championships this past weekend in Huntsville, Alabama.
There, he was greeted by a flat and impeccably maintained 5k course along with what will likely go down as the deepest field among the hand-full of national competitions that are taking place this fall.
The senior from Carroll (Dayton) rose to the occasion by shattering his existing PR en route to crossing the line with a sub-15 minute mark. Agnew clocked 14:59.16, officially, to place 31st overall in the Gold Division contest.
His latest outing complements a successful campaign that saw him ring up five individual race wins, including the OHSAA Troy Regional.
MileSplit Ohio reached out to Agnew for more context on his stellar performance.
"The RunningLane National Championships in Huntsville was a great experience. It was the best and fastest course I have ever run. The first straight away was 800 meters and the whole course was no less than 10 meters wide, which prevented the race from becoming overly congested. The footing was also incredibly nice. It was like running on a golf course."
"I knew it was going to be very fast because of the course, the perfect weather, and the stacked field. There were 15 guys who had previously broken 15 minutes and over 150 under 16 minutes this season. Going into the race I was ranked 117th based on time, knowing I hadn't run any fast courses I was shooting for top 50."
"As expected, the race started out really fast. I went through the mile in 4:44 in 62nd and just worked my way up the rest of the race to finish 31st. I felt really good, which was nice after not feeling so good at the state meet. I was very happy with my race, especially being just over 30 seconds behind the top runner in the country. It was a great way to end my cross country season."
- Kevin Agnew
(Kevin Agnew shown polishing off his race win at the Midwest Catholic XC Championships)
