Being a high school student athlete is never easy. However, there are a few athletes who grab people’s attention because they make it look easy. Senior Dalton Heller is one of those athletes.
Heller has broken the school record for the fastest time run by a male in the 5,000 meter cross country event. He ran the race in 15 minutes and 22 seconds breaking the previous school record of 15 minutes and 28 seconds that was set in 2006 as well as getting a top 8 finish at the state cross country championship.
“It was a big surprise,” Heller said. “I had no idea that the race had gone that fast and I didn’t even know what the school record was until I broke it. It was a very good surprise.”
“I had no clue that happened,” head coach Trevor Wiegert said. “I knew the meet would be fast since it was a nice day and really good competition. He was running really well obviously, but at the time I wasn’t really processing that. So, it was really cool when he told me that he had broken the school record.”
Breaking the record was not something that happened over night. Heller put in hours of training during the offseason to compete at his best during the season.
“I spent all of summer running,” Heller said. “This summer I even competed at the Nike Nationals which is in Oregon so I was running all summer.”
“As a senior, [Dalton] really put in the work from day one of the summer,” Wiegert said. “I knew he had a lot of talent and had success in the past, but I think he really committed and that really paid off for him.”
All the preparation paid off though as for the fourth year in a row, Heller qualified for the state cross country championship.
“To get better at cross country you have to be consistent every day,” Wiegert said. “You have to be willing to put in the miles and I believe that Dalton showed that. He’s a super talented kid but he continued to put in the work and that paid off not only for him but for the rest of the team. Seeing other runners training with him really elevated everyone else’s level.”
However, the season wasn’t over yet for Heller as he and the rest of the team had to prepare
“State cross country was a week after districts,” Heller said. “It definitely wasn’t our hardest training but we put a lot of focus into training to mentally prepare us for state.”
Next up was the state cross country championship. There were 96 boys competing in the race. Heller finished the 5,000 meter race in a speedy 16 minutes and 15 seconds which was good enough to place 8th and earn a medal.
“I definitely had to make a lot of adjustments,” Heller said. “I started out the race towards the top but fell back to 10th. However, in the final stretch I used a burst of energy to pass two people which was good enough to get me 8th place.”
Heller has been running competitively for seven years and while his career at Millard South has come to an end, his cross country career is far from over.
“I plan on running cross country in college,” Heller said. “I’m not sure where yet but I’m definitely going to commit sometime before April so I can continue my career.”
