Cross country can be the invisible fall sport. The name is your clue.

Cross. Country.

Runners begin and finish at a cheering area but in between, they vanish upon entering the course. For Class 5A, that’s three miles (5K) for both boys and girls.

Wylie already has begun its 2025 schedule, with the boys squad taking fourth place at the season-opening Warpath Invitational hosted by Jim Ned High School at Abilene State Park.

Fifth-year coach Jody Harvey calls this a season of expectations in the making.

Seven of his 15 runners on the boys’ side are freshmen, while five of the nine girls on his roster are freshmen. He sees potential this fall but looking ahead, a program with 12 freshmen seems ready to literally take off.

His top three boys finishers at the Jim Ned meet were freshmen. It was, the coach said, the best showing by a boys team at an invitational meet since he became the WHS coach.

Tucker Balliew, a freshman, placed in the top 20. Freshmen Chance Robinson and Gray Schilz were next across the finish line for Wylie.

“I was really pleased with that,” Harvey said. “The jump from junior high to high school is such a big difference, but these are kids who run a lot on their own all summer. They were ready to do that.”

The showing left coach Harvey upbeat.

“I am looking very, very forward to this year. I have a lot of good young runners,” Harvey said. “We have a chance to compete for a district championship on the girls’ side.

Wylie’s cross country success hasn’t matched that of other sports, but there have been standouts.

A few years back, WHS grad Victor Charo walked on the XC team at NCAA Division I University of Texas-San Antonio. Now a junior, he is one of six runners listed on the Roadrunners’ current roster.

Senior Colton Stevens finished third at the district meet last fall, qualifying for the regional meet.

“We’ve had regional qualifiers every year,” Harvey said.

The girls’ road to gold is blocked by Abilene High, which often fields a deep team that is talented at the top. Unlike football, which is broken into divisions by school size, cross country is not. So, Wylie and larger Abilene High compete at the same level.

The other schools in District 4-5A are Cooper and the two Wichita Falls campuses, Legacy and Memorial.

The 4-5A cross country meet is Oct. 9 in Wichita Falls.

WHAT MAKES THE GUYS RUN?

A veteran coach, Harvey has coached track, basketball and football along the way.

He was a district XC champion at Lueders-Avoca High School and ran a year at the college level.

“This is my favorite time of year,” Harvey said. “I have coached basketball and football and all that stuff in the past, and I still coach basketball, but cross country is one of my favorite things to be a part of because they all are really good kids.”

He also enjoys cross country because it is a bit different than other sports. Camaraderie is essential and because it requires discipline to even make it to 6:15 a.m. runs, Harvey finds the sport attracts a high-level student. It is not surprising to him that XC athletes also excel when they are back on campus - in the classroom, in band and even in other sports.

Last year, every boy and girl on his teams achieved academic all-district notice. That is maintaining a grade average of at least 91.

“That’s a disciplined kid who does what’s right,” Harvey said.

They may have an after-school job. One runner, in fact, landed a job at Braum’s but had to adjust his late-night schedule so he can make it to practice runs in the early morning.

Cross country underscores determination.

“That’s what it takes to do it. Everything is hard in its own respect, but I think running is different because you have to fight against yourself,” Harvey said. “Your body doesn’t want you to do it.”

And while football players also practice early, “it’s hard to make yourself run long distances as the sun comes up,” he said. “It’s pain on your body the whole time.”

So, why do it?

“I think they get that runner’s high everyone talks about. They enjoy that euphoric feeling. And I think they enjoy accomplishing things,” Harvey said. “Running is one of those things that there is a goal every single day that you can reach.”

MOVING FORWARD

Cross country requires determination to improve.

Can the first mile go faster? The second mile? The third mile, with a big finish? All this on courses that can change week to week - hilly, muddy, windy, a large field of competitors, etc.

At the state park meet, about 150 runners bolted from the starting point into a narrow funnel to enter the course. Getting position was essential. For a freshman runner, that can be daunting against bigger and more experienced runners.

The first meet shows a runner what to work on. Pacing and patience are important, Harvfey said. Too fast a start may flame out a runner.

“There are people running 15-something, really fast, and you want to chase. But it’s knowing what your body is capable of doing,” Harvey said.

A slow start can be overcome; there still is a lot of race to run, Harvey said. That said, it’s imperative to not get boxed in at the start.

If that happens, the runner has to adjust.

“You have time to recover. You have three miles to run,” Harvey said. “You don’t have to make it up in the next half-mile.”

His freshmen, Harvey said, learned a lot of those lessons at the Warpath meet.

Harvey’s coaching strategy is to monitor splits.

That is where the improvement comes after the initial need to condition is met.

Wylie is challenged to find meets that offer a 3-mile course for girls. At Brownwood, the Bulldogs girls will take on a 2-mile course. Harvey said the focus will be on improving their speed.

What Wylie does in the fall can help in the spring.

Several student-athletes also will run the distance races during track season.

Senior Marisa Dudley and junior Mya Fierro have competed in track and field. Harvey believes freshmen Amari Dudley, Isabel Hayashi and Emma Henao also will compete.

For the record, the Dudleys are sisters - a first for Harvey as the coach.

But track and field comes later.

For now, Harvey said, the biggest competition is “defeating yourself every morning because that is who you’re competing against - your own mind telling you to stop.”

And stopping is not the Wylie Bulldogs way.