CARROLLWOOD — Brianna Bergin is giving the boys a run for their money.
The Carrollwood Day senior is the only girl on the Patriots’ cross country roster this season, and she is using those workouts to chase something bigger — a return to the Class 1A state meet and, this time, a spot on the podium.
Bergin ran at state as a junior, covering the course at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee in 20:22 to finish 31st. She wants to take close to two minutes off that when the meet returns to Tallahassee on Nov. 21.
“It’s funny — there’s a lot of guys on the team, but it’s OK,” said Bergin, also a senior cheerleader at the school. “I’ve bonded with them, but it’s definitely different. I wish there were (other) girls (on the team). We had girls previous years, just two or three. But one of them graduated, and then another is going into senior year also, and (cross country is) not her main sport this year.”
Whether she keeps up with them was never in question, she added with a smile: “It’s a great way to train.”
The summer has been speed work, endurance work, nutrition and strength training — plus mileage, up to nearly 60 miles a week.
That work has come at a cost before. Stress fractures and shin splints have cost Bergin time in past seasons, so she is being more deliberate this year about how she builds up, down to better insoles in her running shoes.
“I like cross country. I really like the longer distance,” she said. “That’s my specialty, and I like taking my time to try and get in those good places, and picking off people one by one. … Sprinting is not my specialty, but I can stay pretty fast for a long period of time.”
Coach Clarence Williams knows she can run a long time. His job is making sure she doesn’t put the cart before the horse. So the two set goals a week at a time, even with the state meet at the end of it all — starting with the school record Bergin already owns, the 19:42 she ran at regionals last year.
“She is very highly motivated — truly dedicated,” Williams said. “In breaking her own school record, again and again, we manage that by splitting her time well. When it comes to breaking those records, those are goals that she sets for herself. She’s like, ‘Hey, what’s the goal for this week?’ And for her, they’re always short term — never long term. She doesn’t put the cart before the horse.”
Bergin knows what the long-term version looks like anyway.
“I really would love to podium at states,” she said. “That’s the big time goal is to make it to that podium and trying to get the time lower, a better finish. … We’re trying to get low 18 (minute finishes), maybe even 17s, if possible, this year. And that would’ve been in the top 10 last year.
“With the training that I’ve done this summer, I really think that I can get there.”