HIGH SCHOOL
MEET THE CHAMP High School Class A State 3200 meter winner Lucas Mueller
Lucas Mueller won the state Class A title in the 3,200 with a time of 9:22.9. Submitted photo
BY NATE LECKBAND Lucas Mueller, a Nova Classical Academy athlete, enjoyed some success his junior year of track. He posted 56.43 seconds in the 400 meter race at the Leo Bond Invitational, a 2:00.5 in the 800 meters and a 4:31.71 in the 1600 meters at the MSHSL Section 4A Meet. Though he ran well his junior year, Lucas had yet to meet his full potential as a track athlete. Lucas had only been running since the summer after his freshman year. “I started running
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by myself, mainly because I had a lot of free time after school,” he said. “During the summer driver’s ed course, one of the guys on the cross country team asked if I wanted to come to practice.” In the fall of his senior year, Lucas finished eighth at the state cross country meet in a time of 16:08. Coming into track season, he started to build confidence. “The biggest factor in Lucas’s improvement was just his belief in himself. He had begun to have some success as a junior, but really didn’t believe he could
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
compete for a state title until this spring,” said his coach, Dennis Barker. “For most of the [state cross country meet] he was pretty far back. He just didn’t think he could go out with the leaders. But he closed real well and saw that he could run at the front. So, over the winter he got in some good training, and by spring he knew he was ready.” Coach Barker focused on building Lucas’s base, but at the same time keeping him healthy. Lucas had built up to running 60 or 70 miles a week over the summer, and after tak-
