All in his head
By Michael Ashford
Originally published 02:45 p.m., October 11, 2007
Updated 01:59 p.m., October 11, 2007
Jacob Davies knew how to run before he joined the Emporia High cross country team.
It was learning to think like a distance runner that took some time.
“In my head, I didn’t know how to run a race,” said Davies, who joined the team as a junior last year. “When I first started, I would go out really, really fast in races, and I remember everyone would pass me. That’s one of the things I’ve learned through all these races — I’m starting to find out better strategies.”
Whatever Davies figured out has worked.
Now a senior at EHS, he is the top runner on the top-ranked cross country team in Class 5A. At last week’s El Dorado Invitational, Davies won his first cross country race despite still being fairly new to the sport.
“I feel like I’m getting better with every meet,” Davies said. “Every meet, I learn something new about the race and what I can improve on for the next race.”
Before he joined the Spartans cross country squad, there was no denying Davies was a talented runner.
During his sophomore track season, Davies helped the EHS 4x800-meter relay team to a 5A State title by running the squad’s anchor leg. He could run a 400 at right around 50 seconds.
The potential was there. Otherwise, Emporia High cross country coach Mark Stanbrough probably never would have tried to persuade the former football player and middle-distance track star to join the team.
But it wasn’t the easiest of sells.
Davies said he was unsure about going out for cross country until Stanbrough made a prediction one day that piqued his interest.
“Coach Stanbrough told me he thought that if I came out for cross country, that I could win State in the 800,” Davies said. “So I did cross country, but it started out that I just wanted to get more strength for track.”
Two years later, and Stanbrough is nothing short of a fortune teller in Davies’ mind. This past spring, after just one season as a cross country runner, Davies made good on Stanbrough’s prediction and won the 800-meter title at State.
“Everything he told me has happened,” Davies said.
But something changed along the way. Davies now considers cross country his sport, not just an activity to pass the time until track season.
“I didn’t expect it to be as fun as it is,” Davies said.
From the day he joined the team, it was obvious Davies had what it took to become a quality runner for the Spartans.
“He was a talented runner. He hadn’t been running too much, and he immediately joined the varsity team,” fellow senior Asher Delmott said. “We knew he had talent.”
But, Stanbrough said, its typically hard to convert a short- to middle-distance track athlete into a runner that can handle the physical — and mental — pains of running a cross country race, which for boys in Kansas is five kilometers, or 3.1 miles.
“The first few meets, he really struggled just to hold on,” Stanbrough said. “I think it was an adaptation for him coming from track and sprinting where he’s normally at the front, to where he was really just trying all he could do just to hold on to people.
“Last year with Jacob, he just hadn’t experienced that hurt in cross country. It’s a little bit different hurt than running the 400 meters. Running the 400 meters, the hurts over just like that. In cross country, you’ve got to run through that.”
Davies had a rough go of things early on last season. He said at times he would run “in his comfort zone,” and when the race got too hard, he would settle for whatever came his way. It took a late-season pep talk from Stanbrough to snap Davies out of his mental funk.
He then came on strong at the end of the season, even finishing as the Spartans’ top runner at the State meet a year ago with a 13th-place showing to help EHS to its fourth consecutive second-place finish.
And this year? Well, it’s safe to say Davies is thinking more like a cross country runner now.
“He obviously has raced better this year than he did last year,” Stanbrough said. “There are still points where he can improve on being tougher, but he’s a heck of a competitor.”
Davies now is confident in his abilities as a distance runner, the results of which are only just beginning to show. As such, he has set a goal for himself of finishing in the top 3 at each of the last three meets: League, Regionals and State.
“I’ve seen what happens when you don’t have a good attitude and a positive attitude going into something competitive,” Davies said. “If you go into something confident and stay positive and believe in yourself, you find out you can do a lot more than you thought.”
But more than that, Davies wants what’s best for his team, and that means winning team titles. With the Spartan boys ranked No. 1 in the state and staring at a serious run at a State title in a little more than two weeks, Davies said his mindset is all about helping his team.
It was perhaps the concept of cross country being a team sport that took the longest for Davies to grasp. But now, he can’t think of any better way to put it.
“Cross country is different than other sports,” he said. “Most people don’t think it’s a team sport, but you’ve got six or seven guys that you’re with every day, most of the time twice a day. We do everything together. It’s really like a family.
“We’re all really competitive. I hate losing — we all do. We all have our own individual goals that we set, and we don’t really share those as much, because it’s more of a team thing. If our team wins, everyone’s happy.”