First-year coach Brent McLain, a former state champion at his alma mater, is counting on the past successes of the Benton Consolidated High School cross country program to carry over into a new era.
McLain takes over the program from longtime coach Rod Shurtz, who recently retired from the district.
McLain has already experienced coaching success himself at Rend Lake College. He established a running program at the junior college in 2000. He spent a decade at the Ina-based institution before heading to Carterville High School, where he coached for five years.
“That first year we started that program at RLC we had kids primarily from Mt. Vernon, West Frankfort and Benton. We had a lot of success and good kids from solid coaches like Clint Turner at Mt. Vernon and Shurtz at Benton,” McLain said.
During his decade at RLC, McLain’s teams won six national junior college titles, including five in cross country and one in track.
“One of my cross country runners ran in the 2008 Olympics, another was inducted into the Hall of Fame this past year and we had a world record holder in the five mile run.”
Last year’s BCHS team qualified for state and Shurtz left the cupboard bare. That squad was composed of five seniors.
“That leaves most of our runners this year composed mainly of freshmen and sophomores, but that could be good as a coach, which could mean a lot of years of success,” McLain said.
McLain, a state champion at BCHS in track and cross country his senior year (1982-83), has about 20 students participating in cross country – 12 boys and eight girls – in the coed sport.
“The boys are coming off a great year. They have a lot of motivation. Even though we’re young, we still have a chance to be one of the top five teams in the south in Class 1A and have a legitimate chance to qualify for state.”
McLain says his top six runners will include two juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen. Returning juniors are Nic Freeman and Tristen Summers, returning sophomores are Mason Wills and Avery Potter and top performing freshmen right now are Joey Sample and Brady Gisher.
“That leaves the seventh spot wide open. Maybe a junior kid that just came out for cross country, Kyle Sneed, can take it. He’s showing a lot of promise,” McLain said. The position could also go to Ethan Kreiger, whose father John, is the assistant coach. John Kreiger formerly coached at Nashville High School.
McLain’s daughter, freshman Amelia, is expected to impact the girls’ team immediately.
“She is the defending junior high state cross country champion. She is the only state champion at Benton and she won in the larger school division,” her proud father said. Amelia will be joined by seniors Ally Gisher, Darrian Freeman, Amy Cocke and Avery Miller. Two freshmen, Lauren Freeman and Abby Potter, are competing for the remaining starting positions.
“This will be a team-building year for the girls. With Amelia, she’s got a chance to be one of the top runners in Southern Illinois in any class and that should help the other girls. It should be a fun group to see how far they can be pushed and how far they want to go,” McLain said.
