Rishi Poludasu was about two minutes off his personal record for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles), but on a day like Saturday, that was good enough to win an AAU national championship.
The Columbus North senior ran 18 minutes, 4.60 seconds to become the top finisher in among 17-18-year-old boys on a wet and muddy course at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville, Tennessee.
"You can throw times out the window," Poludasu said. "An 18:04 is not even close to what I would consider a fast time for myself. I knew that it was going to be raining all week going into AAU nationals. It was raining and muddy, and the course was hilly. It was all around what you were looking for in a cross-country course."
Poludasu’s seventh-place overall finish in the boys 15-18 race led the Columbus Pathfinders Running Club to a second-place team finish. Matt Newell, a freshman at North, took 12th overall in 18:24.33. That placed him 10th among 15-16-year-olds.
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Also for the Pathfinders 15-18 boys team, Justin Beard of Greensburg finished 42nd in 19:43.66. North’s Evan Carr took 50th in 20:02.72, while Ryan Spoon was 61st (20:16.21) and Ethan Lax 77th 20:49.50.
Danny Fisher, the North boys coach and one of the Pathfinders coaches, was happy with the way the kids competed.
"The pressure was off of them," Fisher said. "We don’t take it as seriously as we do the high school tournament series. It’s a good opportunity for them to learn how to race and put themselves in different situations. It’s hard to teach people pace when people are running away from them, but they were able to run people down."
Meanwhile, the Pathfinders 13-14 boys team finished fifth. Chase Austin took 31st in 15:44.28 for 4,000 meters (2.5 miles), while Saumel Hobbeheydar was 40th (15:56.45), Clayton Guthrie 45th (16:00.87), Cord Smith 78th (17:02.77) and Zachary Wager 128th (18:15.01).
The Pathfinders 13-14 girls team finished ninth. Brianna Newell took 18th in 16:58.91 for 4K, while Sydney Morlok was 71st (18:44.61), Leslie Austin 110th (19:45.40), Julie Klaus 117th (20:05.95), Olivia Shoaf 132nd (20:36.20), Kayleigh Austin 134th (20:40.39), Karissa Bevis 149th (21:12.66) and Micah Rutledge 158th (21:53.47).
Fisher and North girls coach Rick Sluder coach the Pathfinders teams, along with Kyle Burton and Craig Dismore. They took close to 50 kids ages 8 to 18 to the national meet.
The past few years, the Pathfinders had gone to the USA Track and Field Nationals for cross-country, but since this year’s were in Reno, Nevada, and the AAU Nationals were much closer, they took the AAU route.
"It was definitely more laid back than our high school season," Poludasu said. "We had a lot of fun racing."
For his senior project, Poludasu also is serving as an assistant coach for some of the younger kids in the Pathfinders program.
Poludasu is considering attending Indiana University, Purdue, Illinois and Texas and wants to major in biology or pre-med. He plans to sit down with the cross-country and track coach at whatever school he picks to discuss walking on to the team.
"It just makes sense that if I can contribute to a team that doesn’t have to give me scholarship money, it would benefit my running career," Poludasu said.
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The Columbus Pathfinders Running Club is open to runners 7 and older. The 2018 cross-country season was just completed, and the 2019 season will start with elementary kids in mid-September and middle and high school kids when their school seasons are finished.
The Columbus Youth Track Club is for ages 8 to 18 and will start its 2019 season in mid-May.
For more information on the Pathfinders or youth track club, visit runcolumbus.org.
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