Tarleton runners busy year-round

BY BETHANY KILPATRICK

Multimedia Journalist

From cross country season to track and field season, the runners of Tarleton State University are speedy, driven and beaming with purple pride.

The athletes on the Tarleton cross country team who compete in the fall also take part in the track and field season that began in December 2024. The cross country team saw a successful season in the fall and is off to a great start in track and field.

Tarleton athlete, Jace Poole, is from Leander, Texas, and is academically classified as a junior. He has been competing collegiately for three years, one and a half at Tarleton after transferring from Texas A&M University.

“After entering the transfer portal, I ended up choosing Tarleton because of the team culture and atmosphere, and the direction the team was heading into looked very promising,” Poole said. “I knew that choosing Tarleton would provide me many great opportunities to compete and be surrounded by great people that want to be successful.”

With a highly time-consuming practice schedule during the fall and spring semesters, the athletes on the cross country and track and field teams stay extremely busy. However, the practice schedule does not differ greatly between the two seasons.

“We start practice anywhere between 6-6:30 a.m., Monday through Friday,” Poole said. “Then, a long run on Saturday. Training for the fall has more volume, as we are training for 8K and 10K races, and track is different in the sense that we are adding in a lot more speed work and technical drills as well.”

Maintaining excellent relationships among team members greatly impacts each athlete when they begin to face the many challenges of being a student athlete.

“The bond between my teammates and I is great,” Poole said. “Since the start of cross country season in the fall, I’ve developed such great relationships with my teammates. We all get along very well and put the team first before anything else. My teammates and I are very encouraging to each other, and we are all determined to accomplish team goals together.”

The team experienced an exceptional cross country season this past fall alongside their new head coach, Bobby Carter.

“The team and I were all on the same page this past cross country season from the moment we came back to campus in August,” Poole said.  “With having a new coach coming in for cross country, we all didn’t know what to expect. But we collectively remained optimistic and ready to have a great cross country season regardless. As the season kicked off, the team dynamic only got stronger.”

By the end of the cross country season, the team had many exciting accomplishments to share.

“Cross country ended in November, and the team and I were very happy with how the season went,” Poole said. “We placed fourth as a team in our conference meet, which is the highest placing finish in program history for Tarleton cross country. Also, we placed ninth as a team at the regional meet, which is a great start for it being our first 10K.”

While there was much growth as a team, Poole was able to celebrate many personal accomplishments as well.

“This past cross country season was my first official year running in uniform for a university, so I had a lot of accomplishments that were made,” Poole said. “I ran sub twenty four minutes for the 8K, which was a minute and a half PR (personal record) for me. I also competed in Tarleton’s Division I regional cross country meet, which is a 10K race. During that race, I was Tarleton’s number one [runner] and ran sub 31 minutes for the 10K.”

The team celebrated everyone’s accomplishments in the past cross country season and has ambitious attitudes about the current track and field season. The indoor track and field season began on Dec. 5, 2024, at the Wichita State-Heskett Center in Wichita, Kansas.

“The team overall this current indoor season is looking great,” Poole said. “The women’s and men’s teams are excited and hungry to represent Tarleton at the highest level.”

Poole has already accomplished much thus far into the current track and field season. He set a personal record in the 3K race and has a goal to score at future meets in all events he competes in, which includes the 1500, 3K and 5K.

The team recently competed at the 2025 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships in Spokane, Washington, which began on Feb. 28 and ended March 1.

The team concluded the meet in Washington with impressive results. One of which was the women’s team finishing in second place, which is the highest finish as a team that Tarleton’s track and field team has celebrated since joining the WAC.

Sofia DeGroot is a sophomore at Tarleton from Lubbock, Texas, and is not a part of the cross country team but has been a part of the track and field team for two years. She competes in the triple jump and long jump events, and she was named the WAC’s most outstanding field athlete at the conference meet in Washington.

“This track season, I have hit personal bests for both of my events indoors,” DeGroot said. “I placed second in [the] WAC championships for long jump (5.90m) and for triple jump (12.61m).”

Carter has high hopes for the current track and field season.

“The goals of this track season are to win and be intentional in everything that we do,” Carter said. “We of course want to be ranked in the top 25 nationally as a program. We want to be recognized nationally, be top contenders at the conference meet and break every school record.”

While the team offers impressive skills and continuous growth, DeGroot explained other factors that drew her to compete for Tarleton.

“I chose Tarleton because the team atmosphere seemed different than everywhere else,” DeGroot said. “I could tell that they cared more about just track and wanted to build relationships with one another.”

While Poole and DeGroot show great appreciation for their coach, their coach also thinks highly of his athletes.

“Jace and Sofia are not only great athletes but also great students and great human beings,” Carter said. “When you look at the definition of what a leader is, I would point directly to them. They do a really good job of helping teammates and keeping everyone motivated.”

The track and field team is currently preparing for their next meet at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, beginning Friday, March 14.