Columbus North’s Mateo Mendez runs at the Brown County cross country semistate Saturday Oct. 22 at Eagle Park in Nashville.
The Republic file photo
As a freshman and sophomore, Mateo Mendez was a starting forward alongside teammates that would lead Columbus North to the Boys Soccer State finals this fall.
But after a shin injury, Mendez had his heart set on another fall sport — cross-country.
Now, the Bull Dog senior has a college scholarship for cross-country and track in hand. He committed earlier this week to run at University of Louisville.
“The decision that I made to give up soccer was the injury that I had. I had a stress fracture, and I didn’t want to deal with all of the contact. It felt a lot better to only run. Running is no contact, and I felt after my injury, I could just continue with my running. That’s what made really want to change from soccer to wanting to run competitively.”
Mendez came out for the Bull Dog cross-country team as a junior last year and made an immediate impact as a scoring runner on a team that finished third in the state. This year, he was the team’s No. 3 runner, but at the state meet, he finished 20th overall at state to earn All-State honors lead North to a fourth-place team finish.
“Being the No. 3 runner the whole season, I feel really good with placing 20th at state,” Mendez said. “It means my training was working. I’m getting ready for our nationals meet, and then after that, just prepare for indoor season and outdoor track.”
Mendez also had visited and had offer from Indiana State and took a few other unofficial visits. He visited Louisville last weekend and committed on Monday.
“I met all the coaches, most people on the team that were there, and then I got to tour all the facilities and everything they had and I just really enjoyed it,” Mendez said. “I really loved the coaching staff there and the program that they have, and they have the field I want to study (exercise science). They’re building up a good mid-distance and distance program.”
This morning, Mendez is representing Team Indiana in the Mideast Meet of Champions in Kettering, Ohio.
“It means a lot to me,” Mendez said. “I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a heck of a meet.”
Mendez also was a standout in track this spring. He ran on North’s 4×800-meter relay team that broke the state record in winning the title.
This coming spring, Mendez wants to break the school record of 1 minute, 52 seconds in the 800 and run 4:12 or better in the 1,600, along with potentially repeating as state champs in the 4×800.
“I feel like I’m just at the beginning my career,” Mendez said. “I’ve only been running really competitively for four years, and I want to see where this can take me.”
