Trevor Foley has already helped his Hernando High cross country team collect one trophy. On Saturday, Foley and the Leopards will try for another at the Class 2A, Region II Meet in Ocala. Taking it easy with a hip injury, Foley still crossed the finish line first in last week’s 2A-District 7 Meet at the Weeki Wachee Preserve, running 17:19.55, which is actually his slowest time in two years on the prep level.
Meanwhile, Hernando captured its first team district title since 2006. Even hobbled and less than 100 percent, Foley’s impact on the Leopards’ fortunes is easy to see. “Trevor, he trains really hard. It’s a full-time business for him, and he’s really dedicated and he ran a lot in the summer,” Hernando coach David Wilson said. “He’s continuing to improve. That’s his hallmark. He keeps improving. He’s really been a catalyst for the team. … It’s put us in a different picture as far as going forward in the district and the regional.”
Not that any of this is a huge surprise. Foley had already proven himself as an elite distance runner in the state before ever participating in his first high school race. While a member of the track and field team at Challenger K-8, Foley twice competed in the Florida Youth Running Association Middle School State Championship. He was state runner-up in the 3,000-meter in 2013 and the 1,500 in 2014.
As a freshman, he attended Nature Coast and quickly became the top runner in the county, with a season-best time of 16:21.35. Though he was second in the district, he won the 2A-II title with a 16:34.48. However, he was battling an illness going into states, finishing 23rd behind a 16:41.00. “It was a good season,” Foley said. “The expectations at the end of the season were to go and get top 10 at state, and I ended up getting sick right before. It definitely wasn’t the race I wanted. So this year I’m hoping to bounce back at the state level… There’s some people saying, ‘Oh, he can only run fast at small meets and stuff. When he gets to the big level, he kind of chokes.’ So I definitely want to go there and show that I’m pretty legit and I’m here to stay, and I’m here to get first in the state.”
Foley, who was also a regional champion and state qualifier in the 1,600 in track last spring, decided to transfer to Hernando after feeling it just wasn’t a good fit with the Sharks. “The training was kind of dumbed down for me. It was based on the whole team,” Foley said. “It never really benefitted me. I never got to race in the big meets, like at UF (University of Florida). This year the whole training is just focused on me and then running big meets, so it’s definitely helping a bunch.”
His personal best of 15:34.53 came when he was competing on his own Sept. 19 at the UF Mountain Dew Invitational, where he finished second. “The season’s been going great. I ran a bunch of fast times this year,” Foley said. “Coming into this season, (the goal) was just to break 15, and I’ve done that on kind of a regular basis now. So my goals this season have definitely changed after the first couple of meets…. Now it’s to run 15:25 come states and win my first state title. And then go to Foot Locker (south regional) in North Carolina a couple weeks after that and try to make nationals in San Diego.”
Those are the type of heightened expectations Foley can have these days, though his hip is cause for some concern. “I felt (the injury) kind of today,” Foley said at districts. “It wasn’t a hard race today, but I’m going to be feeling it when states comes around. To run in the 15s is going to be a little harder than it should be because I haven’t been able to train at 100 percent because of the leg. It’s getting there, very slowly, but it’s getting there.”
Even if he can’t quite pull it off this time around, Foley will still have two more cross country seasons, and three in track, to add to his growing list of accomplishments.
He said wants to break 15 minutes next year, break nine minutes in the 3,200 in track and get under four minutes in the 1,600 by his senior campaign. There’s also the pursuit of a major college scholarship. But he’d certainly like to snag a state title or two on the way. “He could run the table,” Wilson said. “He could win the district, win the regional outright and then really be up there in the state again.”