State Champion
By JARED PUTNAM Union Sentinel Editor

Sentinel file photo/Jared Putnam Chris Jones: 2007 Class AA Boys 1,600 Meter Run State Champion.

For the third time in school history, Union County High has a State Champion.

Junior Chris Jones won the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) AA State Championship in the Boys 1,600 Meter (1 Mile) Run.

Jones finished with a time of 4:35.68, edging out second place winner Alex Compton of Oglethorpe by 1.21 seconds. Jones also defeated last year's State Champion, Justin Schneider of GAC, who finished in third place. The event was held last Thursday, May 10 at Jefferson Memorial Stadium.

What may be most impressive about Jones' already impressive feat is that he is a State Track Champion, despite the fact that UCHS does not even have a track team. But Jones is no stranger to running.

"He loves to run," Panthers Cross Country Head Coach Jackie Hughes said. "He likes the sheer speed and the challenge. You can see it the minute he steps onto the course or the track. You can see it in his face. He is out there to push himself and to win. He is in the zone when he is out there running."

Photo by Katie Jones Jones receives his medal.

Jones began the race in lane two, but as soon as the race began, lanes meant very little, as the other runners all jockeyed for position in a struggle to get into lane one. Hughes said maneuvering is tricky because when a runner is cutting in front of other runners they are supposed to be a certain amount of space in front of them to avoid collisions. This can make it tricky trying not to get disqualified, and collisions do happen. "Its not really a non-contact sport like many people think it is," she said.

The first two laps stayed at a slow pace, as the runners appeared to be staying behind the defending champion Schneider, waiting to see what he was going to do. Jones had to do a lot of zig-zagging through the clump of runners.

"It stayed bunched, it never thinned out much until the very last lap," Coach Hughes said. "[Schneider finally] took off, and he built up a pretty good lead, then [Compton] from Oglethorpe was about 10-15 meters behind him and Chris was behind him.

"Just watching the video, you can't see Chris and you would think that [Schneider] had it locked, and it wasn't until the very final curve, with about maybe 150-200 meters to go, that Chris passed [Compton] and as they came around the straightaway he pulled even with [Schneider] and just blew by him. Chris flat out sprinted the last, probably, 300 meters. He ate up a lot of territory"

Asked what her reaction was when Jones crossed the finish line, Hughes said you need only watch the video. "Look in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and there is this person jumping up and down," she said jokingly. "I always wondered what it would be like to be associated with a State Champion. It was so cool to hear, as he went across the finish line, 'and it's Jones from Union County.' You feel so proud and so happy to hear Union County up there."

Jones came to UCHS in his sophomore year. He ran in the 800 meter race last year, but barely missed qualifying for state. Coach Hughes had him on the Cross Country team again last fall, and began working with him in February to improve his conditioning for track. She also set up opportunities for him to compete in track meets at other schools such as Murphy, Gilmer, and GAC, prior to the Region 8- AA 1,600 meter run. Jones won that event as well, which qualified him as one of the 16 runners for the state race. Additionally, his accomplishments in Cross Country include winning the inaugural Young Harris College Invitational, becoming Region 8-AA Champion, and finishing 11th in the state.

Hughes said that Jones' dedication to his training has been a huge part of his success, and speaks volumes about his determination.

"He was trying to get 35-40 miles per week in. It is such a mental discipline to make yourself go out there and run five miles or eight miles when you would rather be doing something else," she said. "For him to be able to do that by himself, [is incredible.] I don't know that he ever let up a bit on his own training. It took an amazing amount of self discipline and dedication to do what he did."

Not to mention the athleticism needed to go from running 3.1 mile Cross Country races down to a 1 mile race, where the pace is much more intense.

Coach Hughes said that when she met with Jones they would often do 400 meter runs with only a 30 second rest in between, before finishing with 200 meter hard runs alternated with 200 meter jogs. "We'd do like six of those [400 meters] followed up by four 200 meters, so he was building strength and speed at the same time, and those really seemed to help," the coach said.

As the state championships approached, both coach and athlete had high expectations for what could be accomplished. "We were hoping for easily top five, hopefully top three," the coach said. Hughes said she asked Jones to visualize the race on the ride down, to visualize the start, where he wanted to be at each lap, and especially blowing by [the champion] in the last 50 meters. "He knew he had his work cut out for him, to beat [Schneider.]" Jones said he could see it and he could feel his heart rate going up.

Then, when the real moment finally came? "That's exactly what he did," the coach said. "Getting there is wonderful, but to get there and finish it off, that takes a special performance."