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By Andrew White | Staff Writer

Track coach, Lynn Bland, started the Billingsley High School cross country program in the summer of 2024 to help her distance runners chance at college scholarship, and she found lots of success in the team’s first year.

After two years of coaching track and field, Bland thought that starting a cross country program would help breed more success for her student runners. She saw a lot of potential in her runners to make it to college on scholarship, but she knew that many of her successful runners were distance runners and not all colleges in the southeast had scholarships for track.

“We have a rising junior, Colton Lawrence, who definitely has the potential to run in college, if he chooses that path,” Bland said. “I knew he would benefit from (this team).”

She found that a lot of the colleges, especially junior colleges, had scholarships for cross country in the southeast.

Bland, a distance runner herself, started the program in the summer of 2024 and her team competed in the fall of 2024. Ironically, a shorter distance runner who wanted to push himself, E.J. Dennis, helped the men’s cross country team field five, allowing them to score as a team. Dennis will be attending University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth Kansas on scholarship for hurdles next fall.

Though the program was as new as it possibly could be, they accomplished some very impressive things in their first season, competing at the state meet, hosting their own event and figuring out how to train for this unfamiliar sport.

Though Bland had never coached cross country before she found a lot of support from her principal Jason Griffin and her Athletic Director Lanny Jones, who timed the meet that they hosted. Bland also saw a lot of support from other organizations. She even saw support from another cross country program in Montgomery Academy whose head coach, Chris Colvin, assisted Bland on hosting her first cross country meet.

A big hurdle that had to be tackled before Billingsley could host a meet was figuring out training her runners for an event that they had never seen before.

Bland’s training plan started with working runners up into running two miles at a time. She then created a one-mile loop around Billingsley’s campus that was ideal for cross country training. The reason it was ideal was because it consisted of uphills and downhills, uneven surfaces, multiple terrains, and even one place where a ditch needed to be hurdled. They also worked out in the weight room to build strength.

“Such a big part of running, and especially distance running, is the mental part of it,” said Bland. “There’s something about all of a sudden reaching a mile, then two miles, there’s something empowering about that. They realize if I can do that, I can do anything.”

Her team was so bought in that students would ask her if they could do five mile runs after school. Being bought in bread success for Billingsley in their first season as their men’s team, led by captain Jaime Cardenas, qualified for the State Championship Meet.

Though there were only two female runners through the entire season, so they couldn’t score as a team, they found success in their first season. One of the runners, Megan Chandler, qualified individually for the State Championship Meet. Another, Kayden Bland, just missed the qualifications of the State Championship Meet.

Next year, Billingsley looks to improve on their successful first season. If they can, they hope to host another meet and possibly two.