By Francesca Maietta | Reporter
Cross country sophomore Jeremy Meadows was awarded Big 12 Runner of the Week this week after taking home his first win as a Baylor Bear at the Bear Twilight Invitational on Aug. 31.
After placing seventh in the same race last year, Meadows accredited his victory to his great summer.
“I’ve had an entire freshman year worth of training and getting used to how we do practices and workouts here,” Meadows said. “Just putting in base mileage has had a big impact on my fitness level and how I am able to race this year, but I think one of the biggest parts is that I just had a really great summer with no injuries and high mileage. So everything combines with the team, and the coaches this year has helped everything go really well for me.”
Meadows won the 6K with a time of 18:17.2. His Big 12 Runner of the Week award was his first Big 12 weekly honor.
Baylor associate head coach for cross country Jon Capron said Meadows has made significant progress as a runner since his freshman season.
“I’m excited for Jeremy to be recognized,” Capron said. “He has made a great amount of progress within the last year, and this was a great step forward. He has the ability to be very good. Hopefully this is just the beginning.”
Meadows won his first career All-Big 12 honors by running anchor leg for Baylor’s eight-place distance medley relay at the Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championship in the spring. Running track for the Bears during cross country’s offseason, Meadows finished third at the Baylor Invitational in the 3,000 meters and placed sixth in the 5,000 meters at the Michael Johnson Invitational during his freshman year.
On top of all those achievements, his biggest one yet is earning a spot on the Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team. School is very important to Meadows, he said. A computer science major, he said that enjoying his major classes helps him be able to juggle school with cross country.
“I mean I don’t have as much time to do other stuff that I want, but I really like my computer science classes,” Meadows said. “I’m taking a bunch of those; they make up most of my hours, but I enjoy doing most of that work so I’m sure that helps me to get everything done.”
With everything going so well for Meadows and all the progress he has made, he is looking forward to the meet Friday at UT-Arlington.
“It’s a 5K, so it’s a little shorter,” Meadows said. “Personally, I’m more of a speed guy. I like running faster rather than further, so I’m really excited at another chance to get in a good solid race before we have to start traveling further.”
Baylor cross country will face UTA on Friday at the Gerald Richey UTA Invitational at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie.
