The Cross Country Captain

Matthew Cox leads by example in Cross Country

Sprinting to the finish line, Matthew Cox, a senior at Langley, makes it to regionals to represent Langley. Cox finished 14th with a time of 16:28 for three miles at Conference and was the only male runner to advance for Langley..

It all started for Cox in middle school when his older sister, who ran track at Langley, made him start running with her. “By the end of my first season I was hooked on running and ended up dropping the two sports I had previously played, basketball and soccer, to keep running the entire year,” Cox said. He always enjoyed to run growing up and knew he wanted to be on the cross country team when he got to Langley.

Cox has been improving from year-to-year and has been on the cross country team since he was a freshman. As a freshman he started by running three miles in about 20 minutes. Cox’s sophomore year his average time was about 19 minutes for three miles. His junior year he got down to just below 18 minutes for three miles. He started his senior year at just above 17 minutes for three miles and now runs three miles in about 16:30 and is the captain of the cross country team.

Upperclassmen on the team have played a major role in his running career, and he sees former Saxon runners such as Brendan Coffey, Brian Reilly, and Dylan Fitzgerald when they come back to the school.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Spear.

“Not sure where I’m going to college yet, so we’ll see when I get there. But if I am not on a team, I would like to start training for marathons during college,” Cox said. Because he doesn’t know where he is going to go for his college education, he has not made his decision on whether he will run or not.

Cross Country has been a big part of Cox’s life and there has been many benefits for him. “XC has taught me a lot about self-discipline and how I can push myself further. It’s helped me break outside of my comfort zone,” Cox said. These characteristics have also helped him in the classroom.

Cox has some great characteristics that have made him become as good as he is. According Andrew Craver, Cox’s friend “Matt is an extremely hardworking and awkward guy, two things which you need to be a part of the cross country team. He’s a dedicated athlete and for the past three and a half years he’s been devoted to his training and running.” These characteristics are beneficial for anybody who wants to get better at something.

“He gets it. He understands that you have to put in the work. He leads by example. He understands that you don’t get anywhere by going easy. He had a great cross country because of the miles that he put in during the summer that most kids don’t do. He was definitely one of our top team leaders and the other kids fed off of that, and it will definitely benefit him in the future,” Coach Krivak said.