It is not the most exciting image, but imagine the thoughts running through the minds of a team heading out to warm up for the state finals: goals to review, nerves to calm, and demons to slay. 

Throughout the second half of this season, Saline's hallmark has been the ability to execute a race plan, which is easier to do small races. But in the state finals, it takes a rock-solid mind to get it right. 

The mental work is as important as the physical work.

There are not many teams in Michigan where Mitton, Rummel, VanHaaften, and Gage are not scorers. However, this week these guys worked on gaining experience, and it culminated in a 3200m time trial on the course at MIS. Between races and without fanfare, they took their training to the test and saw up-close the course they'll be racing on very soon.

At the starting line, our top seven and two alternates–Cole and Rosales–joined 242 athletes representing 50+ schools from across the team. Twenty-seven of those schools qualified to bring complete teams to the state finals. Saline has qualified as a team every year since 2006, a nineteen year streak that is currently unmatched in Division 1. Brighton, Ann Arbor Pioneer, and Traverse City Central have the next-longest streaks at 9 years each.

Much like heading out for the warm up, the starting line is a particularly challenging moment for athletes. Everything they've waited for, prepared for, and thought about for the past several months is suddenly just ten minutes away.

Jake finished 16th to earn All-State honors. He joins Dustin Voss as one of only two sophomore all-staters, and Jake smashes Voss's sophomore record by 13 seconds.

Like all of our boys on Saturday, he ran patient early and hard late. And while that was all very nice, the most impressive part may have been the last 0.1 miles, where Jake picked up 4 spots and covered that distance in just over 28 seconds. It's one of the fastest finishes in the field. His commitment and belief during that last 160 meters is the stuff of real athletes.

Designer of jerseys. Maker of jokes. Driver of men.

Part of the reason the boys are ambitious is because Brennan is ambitious. He is a kid with goals and a realization that achieving them requires work and sacrifice.

His 15:50 from Saturday makes him the 5th fastest junior Saline has ever had and is 30 seconds faster than his PR from the 2023 state finals, where he had an outstanding race. 

He will be the 17th fastest returner for 2025, but I have no doubt he'll finish far ahead of that next fall.

Despite a summer of great training, Saman did not break his 2023 PR until this year's Regional Championships. When the times don't come early, it can be difficult to remain committed to pouring yourself into the race. Yet, he remained level-headed. More than that, he remained committed to mentoring and committed to running his race plan.

On Saturday, he improved by 14 seconds to give us a third sub-16 runner and a shot at a trophy.

His journey from sprinter, to mid-distance, to sub-16:00 is one of the most impressive stories of an athlete finding their spot.

In a day of surprise team finishes, Collin's time is right up there in terms of unexpected.

As a junior, Collin maxed-out at 17:11, but all of his other races that year were over 17:45. And that type of junior doesn't turn into a sub-16:00 senior.

At Portage this year, he took a honest and reckless try at breaking 16:00 and landed at 16:30. But at Regionals, it became clear that maybe, just maybe, he could get under 16:00 at the finals.

With a smart start and steady moving up late in the race, Collin got across the line in 15:58. The progress of the past year and the confidence that helped produce that performance are why Eckermann will be an inspiration to Saline athletes for years to come.

Wes arrived to high school with impressive credentials as a mid-distance runner, but he finishes his freshman season as an incredible cross country runner. His ability to train this summer and fall was limited by injury, but he finished as Saline's 4th fastest freshman ever. 

At the Regional and State championships, Wes managed 15:00 pace for the last 1,000 meters of his race. With strength like that, he's far more than just a mid-distance star.

Carlos finished his 2023 season by running 20:00 in the reserve race at Jamboree 3 and was Saline's 19th runner that day. He finishes his 2024 season as our 11th fastest sophomore ever and the fastest sixth-man in the entire state championships. From the mile to the finish, Carlos passed over 100 people, many of them in his last mile, which was also his fastest (5:10) of the entire race.

His progress as an athlete is the result of his incredible commitment to training and diligence with strength work. After a year of amazing progress and surrounded with ambitious, talented teammates, watch as he now moves our program forward the same way he moved himself forward.

Like Carlos and Wes, Jack's last mile was his fastest of the entire race. Those three worked together throughout most of the race to be the best 5-6-7 combo in the field. Jack specifically, at 81st place, was far and away the best 7th man at MIS. And there are only three other teams in Michigan where he would not be in the top 5.

Jack is the second sophomore in our lineup that now has two years of state-meet experience under his belt. On the starting line and in training, he has composure that comes from many experiences in a variety of sports and in plenty of varsity races.

Cole and Rosales had two of the harder jobs on the day: they knew they probably were not going to get to race and they knew they weren't even going to have a chance to test their fitness on the course.

What's the job then? Be ready to step in at any second, and support the kids that are racing in any way you can.

Whether it was jokes, pats on the back, or the insight that comes from their experiences, Cole and Rosales did the hard job well this week. The ship sailed smoothly through potentially rough waters because they made it so.

Look at that face. The kid knows he's done his job and his teammates have too. His reaction is one of those moments every coach hopes for.