“To have one runner go and break a school record in a race is special in and of itself but to have your two best runners both break a record in the same race, that’s really unique and special.” That’s exactly what happened for Nathan Newsome, head coach of the Titans boys and girls cross country team on Sept. 17 at Wake Med Sports Park. Senior boys Wesley Haggstrom and Brandt Doty both surpassed the school record in the 5K, a record that hadn’t been broken since 2014.
Newsome had noticed that the two had been slowly approaching the record in the races prior to Wake Med.
“Wesley came to the finish line at about 16:00 flat and really didn’t show any signs of physical strain, and the way the course is set up at Wake Med, I did the conversion and had a feeling he would break it but I figured it would be close,” Newsome said.
It in fact was not close at all.
In 2014, Titan boys runner Garrett Farrimond ran a 15:48:15 to set the school record for the boys but when Haggstrom crossed the finish line the clock read 15:34, shattering the record. In a much closer finish, Doty came across the line right at 15:48:00, just barely edging out Farrimond’s time and vaulting him to second in school history in the 5K.
The confidence going into the race wasn’t just held by Coach Newsome; Haggstrom talked about his mindset going into the race.
“I knew I had the ability to break it and coach kept encouraging me that I could do it but in days leading up to the race I just tried to clear my head and not think about the race.”
The last time two Titan boys both broke the school record in the same race was 2003 when Kyle Lounsbury and Drew Felts accomplished the feat at 16:06 and 16:12 respectively. Since then those marks have been surpassed by Jackson Nichols (now running at Appalachian State), Nelson Russ (former App State runner), Garrett Farrimond (former Mars Hill runner), and now they all sit behind Haggstrom and Doty. This being such a large accomplishment, Haggstrom was understandably overcome with emotion following the the race.
“I was in shock and I didn’t know how to feel about the time I had just run. I take joy in small improvements and I was just hoping for something in the high 15’s and I was not prepared to cross the line at 15:34,” Haggstrom said.
The bond between these two runners is something that makes accomplishments like these even more special. “The feeling of crossing the finish line was pure joy, not just because I knew I broke it but more for Wesley breaking it,” Doty said.
The two have had their eyes set on this goal for the entirety of their careers.
“It means more to me than anything else that Brandt and I were both able to accomplish such a feat together because it is something that we have both been dreaming about for years. It also means a lot to me because I would not be able to have broken it without him motivating me everyday at practice,” Haggstrom said.
That motivation stretches outside just the two of them, “That competitive nature is huge for our team because the rest of us feed off of it and it helps us do better ourselves,” senior teammate Wyatt Stephens said.
That motivation from the top two on the team has the team building momentum as they work towards the end of the season, the girls team currently ranks 6th in the state and the boys sit in 11th.
The team will return to the Wake Med course on Oct. 12 for a shot at running faster times than they did last month and to finish up preparations for the conference, regional, and state championship races.