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SHELBY CONKLIN/Special to the Reporter Columbia’s Aaron Morse is the LCR’s Boys Runner of the Year. (SHELBY CONKLIN/Special to the Reporter)
Aaron Morse was known as a basketball player during his first three years at Columbia.
Turns out, he’s a pretty good cross country runner too. He just didn’t know it until his senior year.
When Lawrence Davis was hired as the head coach last year, he saw Morse at basketball practice one day running up and down the court. Right away Davis saw the potential in the “long and lanky” 6-foot-6 kid and tried to convince him to give cross country a shot.
Morse tried cross country in middle school but admitted he wasn’t very good at it. But four years later, Morse decided to take another crack at it after some convincing from Davis, as well as basketball coach Steve Faulkner.
“I wasn’t the greatest back then so I just figured I’d drop it,” Morse said. “But then I was at basketball conditioning during my 11th grade year and I realized I was running faster than everyone else. I was kind of interested in doing it because one of my friends (Cole Chancey) was. I just thought I’d be pretty good at it now.”
He, like Davis and Faulkner, were all proven right.
Morse led the Tigers to a second-place finish at the District 2-3A meet, placing sixth with a season-best time in the area of 17:34.47 to help send his team to regionals. It capped off an impressive season for Morse, which also included wins at the Bradford Invitational and Tiger Run.
His achievements this season are why he’s the Lake City Reporter’s Boys Runner of the Year.
“Aaron was initially a basketball player that decided to try cross country and during the season he found that he was a cross country runner that was playing basketball,” Davis said.
That was evident by Morse’s steady improvement throughout the season. He’ll even admit it didn’t start off great as he placed just 96th at the Florida Horse Park Invitational with a time of 21:12.36 and then 65th at the Alligator Lake Invitational with a time of 19:38.10.
But then suddenly, Morse’s times began to drop. He ran an 18:14.00 to take second at the Suwannee County Invitational and then an 18:33.51 to win the Bradford Invitational. Then came an 18:03.60 for 11th at the Bobcat Classic before he won the Tiger Run with a time of 18:10.70.
“He built confidence and then he just found he could run faster,” Davis said. “I said, ‘Look Aaron, you’ve got to push yourself.’ So he started pushing himself and as he continued to push himself he found he could sustain that pace, run easier and that it wasn’t that hard for him.”
Then came districts and Morse jumped out to an early lead before ultimately running out of gas at the end and getting passed by four runners. But he was still satisfied with his performance as he improved his best time by nearly 40 seconds.
Columbia came in second behind Leon.
“The district meet was a lot of fun,” Morse said. “I didn’t think I’d do very well because of all the hills, but as soon as I got on the course I started feeling really good about myself. As I started out really fast and then I needed to slow down or I was going to burn out. I led for the first half of the race and then I finally got paced by two Leon people and a Wakulla guy. But I felt really good about it and it was a really fun race.”
Morse notched a time under 18 minutes at the Region 1-3A meet as well, crossing the finish line at 17:56.90. He just came up short of qualifying for state, placing 28th.
“I thought I’d do a lot better than that but it just wasn’t a good race for me,” Morse said. “The course was really tough. I was hoping I’d be all right. If so I probably could have gone farther than I did. I felt like the course was longer and more rough with all the routes.”
Morse hopes to continue his cross country career but first he says he plans to go on a two-year church mission. After that, he’ll look to run in college.
He certainly proved this year that he can compete with the best.
“This means a lot to me,” Morse said.
ALL-AREA TEAM
Aaron Morse
Columbia, senior
The LCR’s Boys Runner of the Year ran an area-best 17:34.47 to place sixth at the District 2-3A meet and help Columbia take second as a team to qualify for regionals. Morse led the Tigers at regionals by placing 28th (17:56.90) to cap off a season where he also won the Bradford Invitational and Tiger Run.
Cole Chancey
Columbia, senior
Ran a season-best 18:41.97 to place 14th in District 2-3A and help Columbia win a district title before finishing 68th in Region 1-3A (19:16.80). He also placed fourth at the Suwannee County Invitational, fifth at the Bradford Invitational and fifth at the Tiger Run.
A.J. Kihei
Columbia, senior
Ran a season-best 18:15.00 to place third at the Suwannee County Invitational and went on to place fourth at both the Bradford Invitational and Tiger Run. He placed 15th in District 2-3A (1818:48.93) and 77th in Region 1-3A (19:47.10).
Justin Hernandez
Branford, junior
Ran a season-best 18:46.50 to place 11th in District 5-1A, helping the Buccaneers place third as a team to make it to regionals. Went on to nearly top that time at the Region 2-1A meet, where he placed 39th (18:46.87).
Juan Resendiz
Branford, senior
Ran a season-best 17:43.00 to win the Suwannee County Invitational. Went on to place seventh in District 5-1A (17:48.40) and 41st in Region 2-1A (18:49.48).
Jesse Cushman
Suwannee, junior
Ran a season-best 18:37.20 to place 46th in Region 1-2A after placing fourth in District 2-2A (19:58.50), which helped Suwannee win its first title in program history.
Hunter Land
Suwannee, junior
Ran a season-best 18:32.60 to place 44th in Region 1-2A after placing fifth in District 2-2A (20:03.40). Also took fifth place at the Suwannee County Invitational.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Brian Bullock, Suwannee
Led the Bulldogs to their first district title in program history, which included three top-10 individual finishes. Suwannee went on to place eighth at regionals to cap off one of the best seasons at the school.