Clinton High School’s cross country program closed out its season with major positives, highlighted by two individual state qualifiers and multiple personal bests. Coach Perry Gillespie said Friday’s trip to the 4A NCHSAA regional championship showcased just how far the program has come.
“We actually were out for a state championship, and I had two runners that made it as individuals,” Gillespie said in a recent interview. “They both are juniors, Ruby Davila and Haley Matthis. They both did very well. They didn’t medal, but they both ran their personal best times, so it was amazing.”
Davila made the return trip after also qualifying as a tenth-grader. “Ruby started running for me as a sophomore so she placed last year. She qualified for states last year, and she qualified for states again this year,” he said.
Mathis extended the family legacy. “Haley has been running with me since she was a freshman, and her older brother Peyton also ran for me when he was at high school, so she followed her brother.”
Running against elite competition, Gillespie said the focus going into the championship was mindset and internal goal setting. “We knew at that meet, the girl I thought would win, she had ran against us in regionals. She was a young lady from First Flight, and her time was amazing. It was like 18 minutes, so I knew that we would have some tough competition up there, so when we went up there, we decided that we were gonna run for our personal best.”
This year, Davila had the advantage of not doing it alone. “Last year she was really nervous in her first time, and when you place as an individual, you don’t get to go into the box with your team. This year, it was good for her to have a teammate and Haley there, and she seemed to be a lot less nervous.”
For the team, conference changes were a challenge and, also, according to the coach, an opportunity
“This year we moved into a whole new conference with the realignment. We went from 2A to 4A, and we were running against really tough teams,” Gillespie explained. “This was a growing year for us. We were used to dominating the conference when it came to cross country.”
He said it changed the team approach weekly. “We were running to improve upon our last race. They came in second or third, but nowhere at the top like we normally did. This conference actually breaks it down, and there are two races a week so you’re racing against only two of your competitors at a time…it was sort of hard to gauge the competition because we never really ran together until conference.”
Among the top standouts was junior Eryk Bautista. “Eryk has ran with me since he was a freshman. He just gets better every year; he was like one or two slots this year away from qualifying for state.”
Davila continued to pick up major honors again this year as well. “Ruby gets better every year. She was our conference runner of the year last year for our girls. This year it went to another young lady at East Duplin so that just little fire in Ruby to where she wants to win it again her senior year. She qualified for all conference…she was a regional qualifier and she was a state qualifier so she’s been my most awarded runner this year and just like she was last year.”
“I’m excited for next season. I’m excited to see how Eryk and Ruby, especially, and Haley do,” Gillespie remarked. “They will be my leaders next year, so I’m excited to see them step up into the role of leadership on the team as captains. Teams are only as good as their captains, as strong as their captains, and so I feel like those three will be strong, capable leaders, and I can’t wait to see them lead the team.”
Gillespie said one senior will be deeply missed — Will Johnson. “Will was my MVP last year, and I’m gonna really miss him this year. He graduates this year, and he is a double athlete. He plays soccer and he also runs cross country for me. He has never missed a meet with me. He was such an intricate part of the team.”
The Dark Horse coach expressed a lot of optimism as this season begins to wrap up, eyeing the future of the program.
“I’m ready to see what next year is gonna bring,” Gillespie said. “We worked hard. We really worked hard. I couldn’t be more proud.”