Depth key ingredient to Spartan boys success

At his team’s preseason time trial on Aug. 1, Mountain Brook High School head cross-country coach Michael McGovern got a glimpse of what 2016 could hold for his Spartan boys. 

Fresh off a summer of training, McGovern’s top 10 runners completed the 2-mile trial course within 30 seconds of one another—an incredibly tight time gap considering the balmy circumstances.

“That’s going to be the strength of our team, is our split,” McGovern said. “Obviously, up front we’re returning two All-State guys, but our strength is going to be a really tight split from one to five, and obviously it goes all the way back from one to 10 and even back to 15.”

The numbers speak for themselves. 

In a sport where team success is frequently determined by the performance of its fourth- and fifth-best runners, Mountain Brook’s immense depth could tilt the championship scale in its favor this fall. 

“It’s really exciting to see,” senior Ryan Kirk said. “With the talent we have, the work ethic we have, I mean, it could be impressive.”

The Spartans last captured a state title in 2011, but have fallen shy the past four seasons. In 2015, the team missed out on a Class 7A blue trophy by only eight points, as three-time defending champion Auburn High School clinched a narrow victory, 54-46. 

“That loss to Auburn last year is our motivating factor,” senior Spencer Hinson said. “That’s definitely fueling our flame.”

Mountain Brook returns nine of its top 11 runners from last season’s runner-up squad, and all have clocked 5K times under 17 minutes. Charlie Slaughter, a junior, and Gram Denning, a sophomore, both earned All-State recognition at the 2015 state meet, and McGovern said the pair is likely to emerge as the team’s front-running tandem this fall.

 Slaughter holds a personal best of 15 minutes, 55.12 seconds, and Denning has run 16:13. 

“Charlie was a contributor his freshman year, but he really stepped up last year, and Gram, last year was really his first year on varsity,” McGovern said. “I think that experience is really going to pay off, and I think they’re not going to be afraid to take anybody on.”

But it’s the depth behind the duo that should make the biggest difference for the Spartans in 2016.

Kirk, Hinson and fellow senior Griffin Riley will contend for spots in the Spartans’ scoring five, as will sophomores Hunter Harwell and Joseph Pitard. Juniors Jack Wedge and John Galloway should also be in the mix. 

“It’s going to be intimidating in November when we have 10 faster people than most people’s five fastest,” Kirk said. 

Riley, who has run 16:24 for 5K, said he thinks that the Spartans are capable of posting a one-to-seven split of less than a minute—a bold, but plausible, prediction. 

McGovern said his team’s abundance of talent provides it with a flurry of advantages. 

If somebody develops an injury or has a bad race, McGovern has other runners ready to step up and fill the void.  Additionally, he said the prevalence of green and gold toward the front of a race can wreak havoc on an opponent’s mental fortitude. 

“I think the mental aspect of just the other teams seeing 10 of our guys right around their fifth, I mean, it’s devastating to the other team to see that many green jerseys,” McGovern said. 

The impact isn’t confined to race day, either. 

Riley said the depth of the group also pushes it to train at a higher level in practice. Among members of the Spartans’ lead contingent, that’s means there aren’t many easy days. 

“We’re all competitive, so if one guy is having a really good day, he’s going to drag the whole pack along to train harder,” Riley said. “There’s never really a relaxed day unless we’re meaning to have a relaxed day.”

According to the team’s three seniors, that type of collective effort has already set the tone for the season.

Riley, Kirk and Hinson said that the 2016 Mountain Brook boys team shares a tighter bond than in years past. As a result, they said the primary focus this fall will be on putting the team first, while also placing more of an emphasis on having fun and enjoying the training process. 

“We’re racing for our team, for Mountain Brook, not for any one individual,” Kirk said. “I think as long as we all understand that, which I think we do, we’ve got really cool things to look forward to.”

McGovern said he expects it to be a special year of training and racing for his Spartan squad, especially since it’s adopted a group focus so early in the season. Team members, he said, have done a good job at striking a balance between being teammates and being friends.

McGovern said that it’s typically harder for his runners to be good teammates than it is to be good friends, because good teammates will be there until the very end of a race and won’t hesitate to call out their peers for slacking. 

Sometimes, McGovern said, it’s much more difficult to tell a friend to pick up the pace. 

“They’ve found that balance of being good teammates and good friends already very early, which is pretty rare,” McGovern said. “They know they can count on one another, and they’re willing to hurt for each other.”

The Mountain Brook cross-country teams kicked off their 2016 seasons on Thursday, Sept.1, at the Thompson High School 2 Mile Invitational.