Sophomore hopes to qualify for state track meet

Conor Gross, a distance runner for the Warriors, is ranked number six in Class A just as a sophomore.

Gross started his career as a freshman in high school where he originally wanted to be a basketball player but got introduced to the distance running community.

“I originally had aspirations to be a basketball player, and I needed something in the fall freshman year to get me in shape,” Gross said.  “But then the first month, I realized the atmosphere of the sport and the people there and the coaches. I loved it and It was a passion.” 

After his Westside cross country debut, Gross decided to put the hammer down in track season his freshman year. 

“I started to take it seriously and really hit it hard for freshman track,” he said.

In his final meet of his first year on the varsity track team Gross was just one second off from a state wildcard spot in the 1600 meter run. After being one second off from a spot it motivated him to get his spot on the State track team. 

“So one second off of the wild card times since they take some wild cards into state and one spot out and one second off, and I think that kind of just motivated me,” Gross said. 

After the 2022 cross country season and a strong season up next for Conor was track season. Many mental and physical barriers came along the way and Gross had a lot during the cross country season.

“I’d say the biggest barriers can also come mentally, like this most recent cross country season,” Gross said.  My time kind of stalled out for a month and a half. and it was frustrating.”

Now in the 2023 spring track season Gross has had some trouble getting his mile time down.

“I’ve faced having some big personal records in the mile lately,” Gross said.

For Gross that was a slight challenge, but he was able to drop his time down to a 4:23 1600 meter run which happened at the Harold Scott Invite. 

After the big time drop at the Harold Scott meet, Conor explains how there is a lot of push involved in the sport. Also how he is very fortunate to not get any major injury from the very injury prone sport. 

“It’s kinda like a feel good sport as you do. Like there’s a lot of push involved. But all in all, like I’m lucky I’ve never really been injured, like enough to send me out for a good chunk of the season.”

As school begins to wind down Gross is still working very hard and up next for him is the District A-4 championship meet at Westside. There are many teams from across the state and metro that will be very challenging for Westside. But Gross would like to win a team district championship as well as take home gold in the 1600. 

“For districts I’d like to see if I could push in the district a for championship and in the 1600,” Gross said. “There are some really good competitors from other schools like Millard South Lincoln, Northstar Norfolk, and they’ll make it a challenge but I feel like it’s within the realm of possibilities to be a district champion.”

Gross has worked very hard in the season and has battled through many rough times and challenges and he thinks he is very capable of getting a gold medal and punching his ticket to State. 

“Obviously, I worked hard and I know what I’m capable of. So I was expecting to get to this at some point,” Gross said.

Gross doesn’t only want to run fast he hopes to break Milo Greders school and state record of a time of 4:09 which he is currently 14 seconds off. He also hopes to pave his legacy and get his name in the champions plaza.

“A big one is to cement one’s legacy is to get your name on the school record board,” Gross said. “Right now, we’ve got the state record in the 1600 as our school record and it is 4:09.”

Being just 14 seconds off from a school and state record Conor is very motivated and is ready for the fight to break that record.

“Currently I’m 14 seconds off. So it’s going to take time, it’s going to take push and there’s going to be some successes and some failures along the way,” Gross said.

Next up for Conor is the district track meet which will be hosted at Westside where he hopes to punch his spot into the state meet. Being just seconds away a year ago he is in a spot to possibly bring home some hardware from Burke stadium.

“Based on my rankings, now, I am in position to medal at state which could only have been a dream a few years ago so that that will be my goal for the state meet, assuming I do what’s right to qualify,” he said.

The District track meet will be held at Westside on Tuesday, May 9.