(COLORADO SPRINGS) – Aiming to support current athletes and inspire future runners at The Classical Academy in Colorado Springs, Braden Roggow, a 2011 graduate, began running at 1 a.m. Friday, July 25, with a goal of finishing 100 miles in under 15 hours.
“I’m doing this to raise money for the cross country program,” said Roggow while running, “I’m here to inspire the next generation of ultra runners, runners, to inspire people to get out there and move their bodies and be fit.”
The storied program is looking to compete this season on a national level in New York and Arizona. Roggow hopes funds raised through his run can support the overnight trips while providing inspiration and perspective.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE TITAN TREK 100 VIA GO FUND ME
“Our kids are learning a lot about the grit and joy that Braden has,” said Matt Norton, TCA cross country coach. “We talk to our kids about being focused and tough when things get hard,” Norton continued, “and they’re learning a tremendous amount from Braden today.”
The current high school runners in the cross country program were holding a clinic for junior high runners at the school as Roggow was between miles 40 and 60 on Friday morning.
“They’re learning from working with the young kids just to have fun,” said Norton. “Cross country in general is a challenging sport, and we challenge them, but if you’re not having fun, you’re not going to make it very far. And they’re learning that on both ends of the spectrum today.”
“Someone we’ve never really met before comes out here to do something greater than themselves and raise money for the team, so we can go on a trip, is super special,” said Grant Fleenor, a senior on the boys’ team.
“We’re really trying to compete this year at regionals and state, especially,” said Fleenor. “We had a hard state performance last year, I think we’re going to really bounce back.”
The Titans have high expectations each year as one of Colorado’s most successful long-distance high school programs. The boys have 9 team cross country state titles and 9 individual state titles since the program started just after the turn of the century. The Lady Titans have dominated since the program’s inception, holding the state record for 10 consecutive state championships from 2003-1012. The girls’ program holds four individual cross-country state titles.
“We started from the ground level,” said Alan Versaw, who started the program and served as head coach until retiring four years ago. “We had kids who didn’t know distance running from much of anything. We enjoyed the journey along the way, and pretty soon we started winning.”
“Ten in a row is hard to imagine,” said Versaw, “because all sorts of things can go wrong over ten years.”
“You learn how to work hard and somewhere along the way, as you work hard, you learn to enjoy it,” said the coach, “and if you work hard with other people, you learn shared joy.”
Vivian Jack, a junior on the team, says the team’s learning perseverance may pay off in the upcoming season for the defending state champions as they get set to run against national competition this fall in New York.
“Our team is getting better and better as the year goes on,” said Jack. “We want to work on pack running more because that helps you earn more points. We want to close the gap between all of us to be super close in speed.”
