Mavericks’ Lewis runs to all-state honors
SHERBURN — Jake Lewis didn’t join the Martin County West/Martin Luther cross country team until his junior year, but he instantly became the Mavericks’ front runner.
Lewis had run on the Mavericks’ track & field team during the previous spring and Maverick head cross country coach Stannetta Svoboda said Lewis always had a talent, especially for longer races.
“Ever since he was in seventh grade, he enjoyed doing the mile and the two mile,” Svoboda said. “… you typically don’t see a lot of seventh graders that enjoy or ask to do the two mile. And he found at a very young age, that was kind of his race. He found that the further he went, the better he did and even the faster that he was running. … He also has a very nice running form, which looks like he is just effortless and is floating.”
Lewis used that effortless form to take 17th place overall in the inaugural TC Running Club Cross Country Showcase last Saturday in Atwater. The meet was the Minnesota Cross Country Coaches Association’s replacement for the Minnesota State High School League’s state meet. Lewis ran to a 5K time of 17:10.3 on a windy day and brand new course. Svoboda said she was impressed with Lewis’ time because the new meet’s setup didn’t allow for his usual strategies.
“You didn’t know where the hills, the uphills or the downhills were and there really weren’t any hills, but just inclines,” Svoboda said. “Where were the turns, where were the trees where you can make an acceleration to lose the people behind you? All of that strategy that he really uses, and he does a really nice job with that, he strategizes his race and he uses those things, because he’s very strong on the hills.”
Lewis agreed the new setup and not getting to walk the course first were detrimental to every runner, but he was too happy getting to run one last race as a senior to mind.
“That experience was definitely different,” Lewis said. “It was nothing like going up to St. Olaf (College in Northfield) and running their course, but I really liked the experience. I was honored to get to go and run one more race. … The course was more unexpected because I didn’t get to see the course or anything before, it was just jumping in and doing it.”
Finishing in the top 25 of the small school boys race, Lewis earned all-state honors. After placing 39th at the course in St. Olaf in 16:48.6 in 2019, Svoboda said Lewis was determined to join the top runners during his senior season.
“I remember when we went into the (St. Olaf) gym for the (2019) awards, and they bring the top athletes and the top teams up onto the stage, and we as a team, always sit on the floor, whether we have a team, or individuals that participated. We’re always sitting on the floor, and cheering for everybody, that’s just part of the cross country family tradition,” Svoboda said. “And as we exited the gym after the award ceremony, he came over to me and he had said, ‘Next year, I’m not going to be sitting on the floor,’ so he had already made that decision that he was going to go back and he was going to be in that top-10 to go up on the stage. And you know, finishing 17th in the season that we had, that’s pretty spectacular. You know, he probably would have liked to have been in the top 10. But 17 and being all-state honors, that’s phenomenal.”
Going into his first state cross country meet, it would have made sense for Lewis to be filled with nerves, but he said one of his main strengths as a runner is keeping his head clear while he runs and staying level-headed before races. He said because he was running as an individual, he was able to focus on his warmups and breathing before the biggest race of his career.
Lewis’ success might have never happened, though, if not for what he called a “MER” or medium endurance run.
“You don’t run the race at your full fast pace,” Lewis said about the medium endurance run. “You just kind of take it easy and (Svoboda) started having us run those in track practices. And I was finishing right around where in previous years her top runners would finish. And she just finally pulled me aside and told me that I had a very good chance of making the state meet as the other guys did.”
Svoboda was right about Lewis’ talent and it showed throughout both of his cross country seasons. With all the changes the 2020 season brought to cross country, Lewis was still able to push himself to his limits and prove Svoboda correct.
Lewis placed first in every MCW/ML cross country meet this year, often finishing at least a minute ahead of the nearest competitor. But Svoboda said his tougher challenge might have come outside of races.
“One of the workouts that we had done … when we first started doing hybrid again, we did 16 minutes out, and I had measured exactly where he needed to hit so that each minute when we finished he would have put himself right at 16 minutes for a 5K,” Svoboda said. “There were only two times where he didn’t hit that mark. … But then there were like three times out of the 16 where he was ahead of the mark.”
Svoboda said Lewis trained hard to hit the 16:00 mark because it would have set the MCW/ML record for a 5K race. While he didn’t reach the milestone, Lewis did well enough to earn his way onto the Iowa Central Community College cross country team to continue his career and education.
Lewis has gained a lot from joining cross country, Svoboda said, including the chance to continue his education in Iowa next year. She said his growth as a leader and the friends he has made will help him as he moves forward. She said though this year has brought a lot of struggle, Lewis never lost sight of the bright side.
“He’s the kind of kid that always sees the positive in everything,” Svoboda said. “I don’t usually see him getting down on himself, … he always tries to find the positive. He’s good at goal setting, and sticking to his goals, which sometimes you can lose sight of, especially with what we all had to go through.”
While Lewis will continue to work toward his goals, he can focus on what he truly enjoys about cross country as he continues his career in college.
“I love the atmosphere, I love running. I love having such great people there to support me,” Lewis said. “And I like having the challenge and always pushing myself to beat those challenges and come out on top.”