Clemente, Belen Jesuit Win NXN Southeast

(Photo courtesy of Frankie Ruiz)

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Belen Jesuit came to Cary, North Carolina for Nike Southeast Regional fresh off a dominating performance at the FHSAA Cross Country State Finals winning the 3A championship. This time the squad dawned a new name and some new team colors. Due to FHSAA rules Belen ran under the name Miami Magis and rocked bright orange uniforms. I've always thought if you wear uniforms that are going to stick out your performance better as well and that is exactly what Frankie Ruiz's team did. He says the uniform choice was about helping the runners identify with one another.

"The tough part is that we didn't know what team color we would use for uniforms. A lot of things were up in the for us. I made the decision that every team is going to bring their "A" game  and rather than taking on the whole world we needed to make sure we focus on our race and our pace. We needed to gauge ourselves on what we know which is ourselves. We picked bright orange so we could pick ourselves out, not so coaches could pick us out."

Competing against teams from 11 other states Belen won easily scoring 88 points which was 54 points less than runner-up Brentwood of Tennessee.  They placed all five runners in the top thirty-one which was faster than most other teams' top two runners. Ruiz says when you have all your runners compete like that it's a great feeling.

"I think it's pretty cool when I've got a majority of the guys setting a personal best in sort of foreign conditions. I think they really came thru towards the end of the season  like we've been training them to do. The team ran to win and I think that was the mentality they came in with."

Elliot Clemente led the team with an individual win in a personal best and new course record time of 14:58, only the second guy ever to run under 15:00 at Nike Southeast. As a team they averaged a time of 15:37! Clemente who had the opportunity to run at Foot Locker or at Nike says the experience running with the team was amazing.

"It was great. All the guys worked hard this season and I didn't want to let them down by going to Foot Locker. I wanted to go with them to Nike and work hard there.  I was happy with my time and finally breaking 15 minutes. I think going to Nike Nationals is going to be a great experience with the team and meeting famous athletes sponsored by Nike and meeting other great teams as well."

Clemente is the only member of his team who has ever been to Oregon. Ruiz took Clemente and the rest of his team to the University of Oregon for a summer training trip when Clemente was only a freshman. That experience of seeing the history of Oregon has been indebted in the seniors' mind for the past 3-4 years. Next week, he and his teammates who will head to Portland under the name Miami-Havana (teams must have a regional name) will soak in the history, but Ruiz says it's also a business trip.

"These guys don't seem to have an off switch. They didn't think they were going to Nike Southeast Regional for the experience, but for the win. I think that is the way they race and practiced. They didn't go thru the motions. They wanted to get something out of it.  The team reminds each other to stay humble and stay closed to the ground though after they win and as a coach I appreciate that because they know they aren't the next gift to running. Let's not smell the roses too long and let's get back to business." 
 

Elliot Clemente Interview



Belen Jesuit Team Interview
 

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