For starters, Catawba Ridge brings home first cross country state championship
It has been a quick run to the top for Matt Osmulski.
Three years ago, the Catawba Ridge cross-country coach joined the staff as a volunteer assistant after a four-year collegiate cross-country career at North Central College in Illinois.
Now, the 26-year-old has led Catawba Ridge High School its first cross-country state championship in his second year at the helm — and he expects more success in the future.
“I remember talking to my college buddies about it, and I was telling them yeah, we won, which is great, but I still feel like we can be better,” Osmulski said. “We can still continue to improve and hopefully continue to win. ... I don’t want this to be the top of the mountain. I want us to keep going up from there, so I’m very happy but not content with it yet.”
Catawba Ridge boys cross-country team won the 4A state championship at Newberry on Nov.10 with 113 points, 12 points ahead of runner-up Bluffton.
One of the biggest reasons was the Copperheads No. 1 runner, Max Conetta.
The junior finished seventh in the field with a time of 16 minutes, 38.7 seconds as Catawba Ridge had three runners finish in the top 15 of the race. Freshman Ryan Pierson finished 10th in 16:42.19 and junior Jordan Kent finished 13th in 16:43.31.
Conetta has been a member of the Catawba Ridge cross-country team since his eighth grade year. Watching the upperclassmen before him motivated him and his teammates to set the bar higher.
“At the start especially, it was a lot of looking up to some guys, like Josh Silverman was one of them,” Conetta said. “He was just like a role model. He was fast, he was involved with the younger kids. Just watching them grow and develop, and as their class moved on, me, Jordan and (senior) Jack (Myatt) stepped up. Seeing everything come together was amazing and really special to see.”
The cross-country team’s state title adds to what has been a solid stretch of athletic achievements for Catawba Ridge. This marks the school’s third state championship, all of which were won over the last six months.
Osmulski said seeing the school’s baseball and softball teams win in the spring made him long for a state championship in cross-country. Winning the state meet filled him with both relief and joy.
“Relief that, as a second-year coach, I’m doing something right,” Osmulski said. “And then joy because you see the other kids react. They’re jumping up and down. A couple of the alums were actually there, and I think one of them starting crying. You can see their excitement and their joy in the whole experience. As a coach, if you don’t feel the same thing as your kids feel for that, something’s not right. You got to get excited when they get excited.”
Even with the state championship in hand, Osmulski said he already sees ways to improve going into next season.
He believes that increasing the team’s practice load during the week could create an even more dominant program.
“I want to slowly build our program up to a higher mileage program,” Osmulski said. “Now I consider us more lower mileage for weekly mileage, maybe hitting 30 or 40 miles a week. I want us to get in the consistent 50s or maybe peak in the 60s during the summer. I want us to keep building doing different workouts, and if everything works the way it does in my head, we should continue to drop times going forward.”
Conetta said that his biggest goal for the team heading into next year is improving their times.
Both Catawba Ridge and Bluffton return their top-five runners, so the junior expects a great rivalry between the two schools heading into 2024.
Catawba Ridge’s girls cross-country team also participated in the state meet, finishing 14th of 16 schools with 330 points.
Sophomore Isabella Cardozo had the highest finish for the Copperheads, finishing 20th with a time of 20:16.98.