WICHITA, Kan.—
Over the past four years, Independent senior Jacob Campbell has been a key contributor for a very successful Panther cross country team. Not only was he varsity as a freshman, but he was the top runner on a team that took first place at its regional in class 4A. Campbell began running in middle school as a way to get in shape for basketball, but ended up more successful in cross country.
“I didn’t know my potential until after my seventh grade year, and then when I saw what I had, I decided to focus on [cross country] as more of a primary sport than a secondary sport,” Campbell said.
Many fellow classmates also joined Campbell in participating in the sport to get in shape, and many came to the same realization: that cross country might be their niche.
“Being successful and having a successful team and coach has helped a lot to keep me with it,” he added.
Over the course of his four years, Campbell has helped the team to four Central Plains League titles, three Regional titles, and two State Championships the past two seasons. He also capped off a very successful season with a sixth place individual finish this year at state.
“It feels good, knowing I’ve helped the team out throughout my four years,” he said.
During his sophomore and junior seasons, Campbell suffered through some injuries that led him to drop from being the team’s first runner, to somewhere else in the top five. However, he trained hard and smart, and brought himself back for his senior season, and finished the year as he started as a freshman—the team’s top runner.
“Coming into senior year as the third or fourth runner, I wanted more, knowing that I could be better, and keeping myself healthy and injury free was great,” he said.
He did just that.
Individually, Campbell considers his greatest accomplishments, both from his senior season, to be when he broke 17 minutes in the five-kilometer race and placing sixth at State.
Despite all of these accolades, Campbell considers the greatest team accomplishment of the past four years to be the one year the team did not receive first at Regionals. During his sophomore year, the team went into Regionals, not knowing if they would qualify, barely squeaked out third place, and then went on to take third overall.
“That was a good accomplishment, because it helped give us a taste of what could come and led us to those state championships,” said Campbell.
As for the future, he would like to continue to run at the collegiate level.
“I want to run in college for the sole fact that I’ve been injured most of my high school career, and I haven’t been able to see how good I could have become. I want to just to see what will happen—just to see myself and my times improve,” he said.
