After seeing a promising junior track season derailed by a respiratory infection, Neal White had to be thinking, ‘Here we go again,’ when he developed COVID the week his senior cross-country season began.
But unlike the illness during track season, the COVID turned out to be just a minor setback. White bounced back to have a strong fall season and repeats as The Republic Boys Cross-Country Runner of the Year.
“It was a big deal,” North cross-country and track coach Rick Sluder said. “When you lose your entire spring season, basically, not only does it physically set you back, but mentally. There’s got to be a lot of worry there — ‘What’s going to happen to me?’ and ‘Where’s my fitness?’ and ‘Can I come back from this?’ — and he really overcame a lot of those worries and stresses to just have a wonderful season. Neal did a lot to overcome that, and I’m just really proud of him.”
White ran a 9-minute, 10-second 3,200 meters to finish second in the Hoosier State Relays, the unofficial indoor state meet. But during the outdoor season, he came down with strep throat the week before the Conference Indiana meet and ran much slower there.
The next week, he began having trouble making it through workouts.
“I would run, and then, it got worse,” White said. “The last day where I did any sort of running, I made it less than a lap around the track before I had a really severe coughing attack. I couldn’t breathe at all, really. I had to stop and regain my breath, and that could take 30 seconds to over a minute.”
At that point, he was shut down for the season.
“It was really upsetting,” White said. “Going into junior year, I had a lot of goals of making it to state in track season because I almost made it out of regional (in the 3,200) my sophomore year.”
White started running again in middle of May.
“It was shortly after the sectional meet where I felt like I could get back to running more,” White said. “I had to build my way back up, and I was a little more limited. It wasn’t a super-long time of no running, but it was a longer time of where my running was limited by my breathing and the time I had taken off.”
Once he got past COVID, White had a strong start to the cross-country season. He ran 15:13 for 5K (3.1 miles), which was just one second off his personal record from last year.
“I didn’t really worry about getting back to where I was,” White said. “I was more just worried about being limited in what I could do because it took awhile to build back up to all the workouts that I was doing before. I had a lingering cough for a really long time, so that was more my main concern — just being able to push myself beyond.”
White won the Brown County Sectional and finished third at the Evansville Regional. But after earning All-State honors with a 12th-place state finish last year, he took 34th this season.
“I thought my season as a whole was pretty strong,” White said. “There were a few races where I was upset a little bit at my performance. State was the race I was most disappointed in. Everyone has bad races or bad days. Mine just happened to be at the state meet, which was unfortunate. Looking back, you always wish you could have done better, but overall, the season went well, especially given what occurred.”
White is undecided on running in college. He has not yet taken any college visits, but plans to in the coming weeks. He wants to study cybersecurity or civil engineering.
For his senior track season, White, who came within one spot of qualifying for state as a sophomore, is hoping to get there in the spring.
“At the start of track season, I was doing really well, and I was really happy where I was at, so I’d like to be able to exceed beyond that and make it to state in the 3,200, finally,” White said. “I’d like to take a shot at getting a higher place on the 3,200 record board here at North.”
As far as Sluder is concerned, White already is one of the top runners that has come through North.
“He really led us in every way, and I couldn’t be more proud of Neal,” Sluder added. “He goes down as one of one of our better cross-country runners in program history, and that’s saying a lot, with state champions and multi All-State runners.”
The Republic 2024 All-Area Boys Cross-Country team:
Neal White, Columbus North: The senior won the sectional and finished third in the regional and 34th at state.
Jace Works, Columbus North: The junior finished fifth in the sectional, eighth in the regional and 15th at state.
Draven Martinez, Columbus North: The senior finished sixth in the sectional, 29th in the regional and 68th at state.
Denton Sluder, Columbus North: The junior finished eighth in the sectional, 15th in the regional and 75th at state.
Justin Reckers, Columbus North: The junior finished 11th in the sectional, 34th in the regional and 97th at state.
Jonny Klaus, Columbus North: The senior finished 10th in the sectional, 27th in the regional and 103rd at state.
Logan Vanzant, Columbus North: The junior finished 50th in the regional and 170th at state.
Nolan Dailey, Hauser: The junior finished seventh in the sectional, 37th in the regional and 156th at state.
Kraedyn Young, Jennings County: The senior won the HHC title and finished fourth in the sectional, seventh in the regional and 194th at state.
Cash Summers, Jennings County: The freshman finished 14th in the sectional and 117th in the regional.
Jackson Brookes, Columbus East: The junior finished 21at in the sectional and 98th in the regional.
Norman Dickson, Columbus East: The freshman finished 29th in the sectional and 95th in the regional.
Honorable mention
Brown County: Kai Koester. Columbus East: Elijah Clore, Norman Dickson, Austin Menefee, Lorren Westerfeld. Columbus North: Evan Bense. Hauser: Kolson Gernentz, Mason Moore, Max Moore. Jennings County: Dawson Leak, Brock Maschino, Max Rodriguez.
