Going the distance – Greenville Daily News

HUDSONVILLE — It is said the best things in life are worth waiting for.

Carson City-Crystal sophomore Coleman Clark takes his first step as a state champion as his left foot touches the finish line during at the 3,200-meter run at Saturday’s Division 4 state track and field finals. Clark defeated the second-place finisher, Mason Sumner of Breckenridge, by 11 seconds. — DN Photo | Alex Freeman

Carson City-Crystal (CC-C) sophomore Coleman Clark waited through nearly four hours of weather delays during Saturday’s Division 4 state track and field finals at Hudsonville, but the wait was worth it as he was the first person to cross the finish line during the second-to-last track event of the day — the 3,200-meters.

The mid-afternoon race was pushed to the late evening, but the feelings were all the same as Clark was elated to be crowned as a state champion.

“I felt great,” said Clark about his feelings during the race. “I was really nervous going into it because anyone can have a super good day at any time. I was really nervous, but everything just went the way I wanted it to. It was perfect.”

Clark started off the early stage of the race amongst the pack of 22 runners, but quickly gained the lead within 300 meters of the start. About 200 meters later, Clark had already gained three to four seconds of separation between himself and the other 21 runners. It’s been his strategy all season — get out to a lead and never give it up — but Clark wasn’t done building on his separation.

As he finished his seventh lap and headed for the last trip around the track, Clark had built a 10-second lead over Breckenridge freshman Mason Sumner, a runner who Clark has raced against numerous times this season in both track and cross country, who he also thinks of as a friendly rival. Clark would even build on the 10-second lead in the final lap to win the race with a time of 9 minutes, 47.23 seconds, 11 seconds faster than Sumner and 19 seconds faster than third place.

It was Clark’s race from start to finish, but he didn’t let himself believe it until the last lap.

“I kept hearing from people on the sidelines that (Sumner) was like 10 meters behind me, so I was nervous for most of the race,” he said. “But it wasn’t until the last 200 (meters) that I was like, ‘Wait a second, I got this.’”

Once Clark crossed the finish line and truly got a look at his lead, he still had a hard time believing it, given how close he and Sumner were in races during the regular season.

As Coleman Clark runs down the straight-away after the first turn of the second lap, his 21 competitors in the 3,200-meters are just rounding the bend as Clark builds an early lead which he would no surrender during the Division 4 state track and field finals in Hudsonville on Saturday. — DN Photo | Alex Freeman

“Yeah, it does surprise me. He’s been really close to me for most of the season,” Clark said. “He had a good race, too. We both had great races. I’m happy he got second. That’s where I wanted him to be. And I’m happy I got first. That’s where I wanted to be.”

CC-C head coach Grant Woodman, however, wasn’t too surprised at the gap, given that Sumner raced in two other events at the state finals, the 1,600-meters and 3,200-meter relay, before the 3,200-meters.

“Mason wasn’t fresh and Coleman has been focused pretty much all day on getting out and not leaving anything to chance this time,” Woodman said. “He did it, he knew he was ranked No. 1 and all season long he’s tried to get to the front as quickly as possible and where he was sitting, he got out front and just never looked back, that was his plan.”

Following the conclusion of the race, Clark waited at the exit area behind the finish line as he watched Sumner take second place. Sumner dropped to the ground and Clark went over to shake his hand and congratulate his friend on a great race.

“I told him good job, I told him that he’s got three more years that he can get even better and better,” he said.

Clark hasn’t been shy about giving Sumner credit for helping to push him this season, and he said he may not have been here without that push.

“Without competition, it’s really hard to become the best runner you can be,” Clark said. “He was my main competition this year, a friendly competition.”

Reflecting back on his sophomore campaign, with a fifth-place finish in the state in cross country and now a state championship in track in hand, Clark said this year exceeded his expectations.

“In cross country, that was pretty much where I expected to be, fifth, but I expected probably the same for track. I expected to get like top five,” he said. “First, yeah, that definitely exceeded my expectations. About halfway through the season was when I first thought, ‘Oh, I want to win this,’ but at the beginning of the season, I thought top five would be good. When I broke 10 (minutes), it was an eye-opener. I knew I could run faster than I’d been running.”

Sumner was surely a good main competitor to see regularly for Clark, as they showed to be the two best distance runners in Division 4. The increased competition in the league and region is something that is troubling at times for the Eagles, but also something which Woodman said is a blessing in disguise.

“To be quite honest, we have been kind of numbed to the fact that it’s (always) Coleman, Mason, Coleman, Mason, but everybody else around us, it’s not that fast,” Woodman said. “I was talking with some of the other coaches today, I think our region is the toughest or one of the top two toughest regions in D4. We had to qualify people on time and distance, whereas other people, they got first and second with times and distances that were significantly less than us. That pushes us to do better, but it also puts the pressure on us to get out (to the state meet).”

It’s likely we haven’t seen the last chapter of the Clark-Sumner rivalry. Clark plans to hold up his end of the bargain and hopes to return for years to come and has already set his sights on a new goal for next season.

“Next year I’d like to, it’s a bit of a lofty goal, but our school record is 9:24 and the Division 4 state record if 9:22, so I’d like to break both of those next year with like a 9:20,” he said.

Given Clark’s age and success thus far, Woodman knows those goals are in the realm of possibilities, as well, and is extremely excited to watch the growth of Clark for the next two years.

“This puts him in pretty stellar company to be in the high to mid 9’s for as young as he is,” Woodman said. “He’s got a high ceiling so we can push that and hopefully we can get him back here again and repeat and repeat.”