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Every time White County cross country coach Sam Borg sets a goal for freshman runner Jenna Gearing, she knocks it out and moves on to the next one. But that doesn’t come as a surprise to Borg after seeing her run over the summer.
“We knew with the summer program that she was going to have a great freshman year,” Borg said. “By mid-summer, I couldn’t wait to put a jersey on her.”
Gearing is fulfilling all of Borg’s expectations for her as a young runner. Earlier in the year, she broke the course record at the West Hall Invitational. Just last week, Gearing tore up a four-year-old course record in the girls race at the Mountain Invitational at Unicoi State Park in Helen, finishing the race in 18 minutes, 49 seconds.
For her efforts, Gearing has been named The Times Athlete of the Week.
“Mountain Invitational was sort of a surprise because I was coughing and I wasn’t feeling the best,” Gearing said.
Going into the season, Gearing knew she had a huge spot to fill with the graduation of Jessie Dotson, but she leads the pack on this season’s young team.
“Jessie left such a huge impact on White County,” Gearing said, “But I think I’m getting there.”
One of the unique things about Gearing, according to Borg, is that she is able to motivate herself even if there is not a girl running next to her pushing her to go faster and win.
“I’ve been impressed with how well she runs by herself,” Borg said.
Gearing is used to being the only one on the course though.
“My eighth grade year was my first year running, and I was used to running alone,” Gearing said.
Borg and Gearing both said that she still gets nervous before every race, no matter who the competition is.
“She’s still learning how good of a runner she is,” Borg said.
Gearing believes that even though she is nervous, her excitement helps her.
“When I start running, I just forget everything,” she said.
In order to push herself even further, however, Gearing runs with the White County boys’ team to try to stay at their level because she said there are others out there working just as hard as her, so she can’t let off.
“It makes me feel like I always have competitive people to run with,” Gearing said.
Borg and the rest of the White County team can be sure that Gearing will keep pushing herself because she has goals of her own to reach.
“By the end of next year, I want to break 18 minutes,” Gearing said. “I don’t know if I can, but I definitely want to do it by the end of high school.”
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