Columbus North has been the No. 1-ranked boys cross-country team in the state the entire season and even spent a couple of weeks on top of the MileSplit national rankings.
The Bull Dogs didn’t get there by accident.
North’s return to the top of the state has been a result of four years of work to get back to that point.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” Fisher said. “It’s a lot of dedication to a goal that when we started four years ago, it was really far away. It was a dream, so to speak, instead of an actual goal. To see it realized and to see these seniors get a little bit closer to that dream, the dream is just an opportunity just to be in the race and toe the line with an opportunity to win a state title.”
Fisher took over the program in April 2017 from Rick Weinheimer, who retired after 38 years of coaching the boys and 35 years as girls coach. Weinheimer had led the Bull Dogs to five boys and one girls state title, including three consecutive boys championships from 2009-11.
But since that 2011 season, North has been unable to taste another state victory. This year, Fisher might have the team that can break that drought.
“It’s years of work,” senior Collin Pruitt said. “We’ve been looking at this for a long time, and we’re all in with commitment.”
Pruitt is one of three seniors running varsity for the Bull Dogs, joining Andy Stohr and Austin Pulkowski.
“It’s been a lot of dedication, showing up six days a week early mornings,” Stohr said. “Even during quarantine, it was huge doing training on our own. I think it’s really gotten us to where we are today. We still have a lot of work to do these next two weeks, but I feel like these workouts have gone well. The team has just worked hard together.”
While schools were shut down from March through June, and spring sports were canceled, athletes were left to train on their own. Fisher devised a system where seven of his key returners led small groups of about five or six runners and were charged with making sure they did their workouts.
“Whatever happens at the state meet, these boys earned that back in March and April and May and June when their coach couldn’t be with them to hold them accountable,” Fisher said. “They held each other accountable. That’s why we always teach leadership and servant leadership. You’re serving your teammates, you’re serving yourself and your community, and no better time was that on display than those months that we were quarantined and we were not allowed to meet as a group.”
Without a track season, that was key. Junior Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff, who was a state qualifier in the 1,600 meters in track as a freshman, has been the Bull Dogs’ top cross-country runner the entire fall.
“Usually, it just starts with a solid summer or even a solid track season in the spring,” Kilbarger-Stumpff said. “Obviously that was modified, but we kind of used the spring to help refocus and not let up on our training and running, and that kind of led into the summer. We weren’t able to do practice as normal, but tried to keep it as normal as we could, knowing that we were going to try to do something special this fall.”
That led Pulkowski to push himself to be at the top of his game.
“Usually, it takes hard work and discipline,” Pulkowski said. “I learned this my freshman year. My freshman year, I thought I would just do good automatically, and that didn’t end up being the case, so I pushed myself over the last couple of years, and I’m glad I did because now, look where we are.”
North’s only losses this season have come in the two meets in which none of its top seven varsity runners competed. The Bull Dogs have won all of their other meets, despite competing in most of them without top returning runner Matt Newell because of a strained hamstring.
Newell, a junior who finished 14th at state last season, returned to help North win Saturday’s North Regional at Ceraland.
“It’s been hard,” Pulkoswki said. “When you become No. 1 in the state, the only thing harder than getting there is staying there.”
On Saturday, the Bull Dogs will try for their first semistate title since 2015 at Brown County’s Eagle Park. The top six teams qualify for the state finals, which will be Oct. 31 at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
“We have some things to work on, which every team does, with two weeks to go,” Fisher said. “But we’re pretty close to rolling on all cylinders. It’s just a privilege to coach these boys, and I’m looking forward to what they can accomplish these next two weeks.”
