Saratoga High School missed out on the team state championship this year by a single point, but a silver lining they were looking for heading in was the potential 4th consecutive championship as an individual in the 2a boys classification for Grant Bartlett, which would be a truly remarkable feat. Bartlett sat down earlier in the week and talked to Duke Dance regarding what it meant to him and the approach that goes into chasing an opportunity like this one.
Grant started by reflecting on his first state championship back when he was but a freshmen in high school and having to beat out his toughest competition from an unlikely place, his own team “There was a senior on our team won it two times before that so I had to go against him so there was competition on our own team but I felt like I could beat him and I did so it was cool. That was my favorite one as a freshmen if I’m being honest.”
This year, Grant would once again face competition from his own team as Grady Bartlett also of Saratoga would finish the race just 8 seconds behind Grant to perhaps give the 3 time defending champion a bit of a scare and someone on his tail to keep him on pace.
Grant didn’t start off the season as he would have wanted, in his own words he “didn’t have very good times” and many athletes can be put off on occasion by slumps especially when they just so happen to be the start to your season and you feel like you have dug yourself into a hole right from the jump but Grant didn’t let that happen to him. His point of really hitting the 180 on his season was the final meet of the regular season, “We went to Cheyenne for our last meet before regionals and stuff and I finally ran a good time. I broke our school’s record in it so I feel like I finally got my confidence back and I’m feeling pretty good for the big weekend.”
The “big weekend” in question was of course today where Grant ran a 17:24.58 which was good enough to successfully bring home that 4th consecutive title as many had predicted, solidifying that the confidence Grant was feeling was entirely justified. The season much like an individual race isn’t necessarily how you start, it’s about making sure you peak at the opportune time and Grant managed to save his best races for the ones at the end when they mattered just that little bit extra. Congratulations to Grant Bartlett for his 4th straight State Individual Championship in Cross Country today.
