Trending
Ever since he burst on the scene as a sophomore, Quintin Thomas has basically become a household name during the cross country and track season. Although he only started running his sophomore year, his times make one think otherwise.
Thomas, though will compete this year at Wheeling Park after spending his first two seasons with Wheeling Central.
"It's exciting. It really is exciting," Wheeling Park cross country coach Jacob Galik said about having Thomas join the Patriots. "Coach (Kelley) Mortakis did a great job with Quintin over at Central. We've been racing against him for three years and he has held his own. Now that's he's here, he pushes the other guys to be better. When he showed up, everyone knew that they were going to have to work that much harder to get themselves a spot on varsity."
In his first two seasons, Thomas qualified to the West Virginia state meet. In 2016, as a sophomore, he finished 36th crossing the finish line in a time of 17:51.20.
The following year, he improved as he clocked in at 17:45.34 good enough for 25th.
With such impressive numbers, there are some high expectations.
"It's a different level of competition, so Quintin is going to have to push himself, to get similar results and that will make him a better runner," Galik said.
More importantly, Thomas has shown that he is a team player and will make everyone around him better.
"During our workouts over the summer, Quintin has been a standout. He is a monster on hill days. On runwv(.com), they've updated the rankings, he's 21st in the state and fifth in the region.
"That's only on returners and doesn't factor in freshmen. I think he can do that. I think that's fair and I think he can probably be better than that. On some workout days, Quintin wins and that makes everyone around him work harder to be better, him included."