Sophomore Mitchell White Has Bright Future in Cross Country

Not having any fun in some of the other sports he had previously tried, Millis’ Mitchell White was enticed by his friends to try running cross country as an eighth grader and eventually found his true calling.
“I had only previously jogged here and there, but nothing dedicated. Joining cross country and both indoor and outdoor track basically came down to my friends,” White said. “I was doing other sports that I was just not good at, so I gave running a shot. The team was looking for people, and I felt that I might be a valuable asset.”
Entering high school, White tried out for the cross-country team as a freshman, and although his first meet was a huge disappointment, it didn’t last too long.
“I was so psyched getting to run in my first varsity race, but I finished with a time of 20 minutes,” the now sophomore said. “I had placed and gotten the team points, but I thought that I was going to do a lot better.”
With the disappointment of his first varsity cross country meet behind him, White set out to improve upon his opening day time of 20 minutes. For the remainder of the season, the freshman pushed himself extremely hard to perform at the pace he believed he could. By the end of the cross-country year, he ran a personal best of 18 minutes at the Twilight Meet and posted a time 0f 18:27 at the State Championship Meet.
While the first-year runner may not have been pleased with his originally time, his coach found him to be a very talented runner.
“As a first-year runner, he just came out and blew everyone away,” Millis Cross Country Laura Connor said. “After his performance last season, he will definitely be one of our top guys this year. He is a hard worker, sets goals for himself and goes after them and is a role model to his teammates.”
In addition to running cross country in the fall, White also ran winter and spring track as well. He began the track season focusing on the one mile, but eventually gravitated toward to the 2-mile, as it was more challenging and in his wheel house when it came to running.
“I had plateaued at the mile; running a 5:03 indoors and 5:04 during the outdoor season,” he said. “In the 2-mile, I was setting records and continuously cutting 10-20 seconds of my times with a best time of 10:43.”
Running in the freshman/sophomore meet, where he qualified in the mile, Mitchell ran a personal best, but fell back behind the leaders in the beginning and was never really able to get himself back into competition.
Coming into his second season running cross country for the Mohawks, White is looking to get his times down and make an impact on the score sheet for Millis.
“Realistically, my goal is to eventually get down to a 16:30, while being able to challenge for wins,” he said. “I would also like to do well on the league (Tri-Valley) level.”
Coach Connor would like to see White chip away at his times in the upcoming season while the sophomore continues to improve. She would also like White to be the catalyst and lead runner of a pack of Millis runners, so that the cross-country team can begin to improve in its record.
As the new season begins, White had not really set goals for himself other than lowering his times, but would like to center on his team. His biggest individual goal would have been to eclipse the school record, which he already has (John Frasca, primarily a hurdler, held the record at 18:30).
“Last year, we had a couple of very well-run meets, but have nothing to show for it in terms of wins,” White said. “This year, I’m looking to get into the top 10 of the Divisional Meet and possibly qualify for the States.”
Having three full seasons in which he’ll be able to compete, White should not only be able to get his time below 16:30, but he will also be contributing to the team doing something that he is good at.