Matt Withrow is a student of running. The Andrew senior has a seemingly indefatigable drive when it comes to studying strategy and training in his favorite subject, cross country.
“He has all my videos and all my books,” Andrew boys cross-country coach Joe Mortimer said of his top student. “He works hard, is self-motivated and knowledgeable.”
Next thing you know, people will be studying Withrow. And for good reason. He swept through every important race this season, and that included the Class AA state championship.
So it should come as no surprise that Withrow ran away with the Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV Ch. 9 Athlete of the Month honor for November. Withrow ran his fastest time of the season, 14 minutes 14 seconds, over the revised three-mile course at Peoria’s Detweiller Park on Nov. 8. He beat Decatur MacArthur’s William McCann by 13 seconds–and that was Withrow’s narrowest margin of victory this season.
For good measure, he won the Bremen sectional on Nov. 1 by 23 seconds and last weekend qualified for the Foot Locker national cross-country championships in San Diego on Dec. 13 by taking the Midwest Regional in Kenosha by 20 seconds.
It has been quite a ride in Withrow’s running shoes since early September.
“I obviously thought about what it would be like,” he said of this season. “It was just as good as I thought it would be–if not better.”
He went unbeaten at the Plainfield, Reavis, Peoria Notre Dame, Tinley Park and Rich Central Invitationals and the SICA West meet. Then came victories at the regional, sectional and state.
“I’ve seen a lot of great runners, and he ranks up there with the very best,” said York coach Joe Newton, whose resume includes 23 state championships. “He reminds me of this Norwegian kid I had here. He’d be in the pack in the middle of a cross-country race, and all of a sudden he’s 150 yards ahead.”
That would be Marius Bakken, a foreign-exchange student at York in the 1995-96 school year. He finished fourth in the state cross-country meet but won the 3,200 meters and 1,600 at the IHSA track meet. He went on to compete in the 2000 Olympics for Norway.
“I always make a big push in the middle of the race,” Withrow said.
Newton also said Withrow’s time ranks with those of former state champions Donald Sage of York (14:03) and Jorge Torres of Wheeling (14:00). Those times were over a slightly shorter course.
Mortimer, who ran against one of Newton’s first York teams in the 1961 state meet and is retiring this year, said Withrow’s ability stems from a demanding workout schedule. On Mondays, Withrow would do six 1,000-meter repeats. Andrew ran dual meets Tuesday, and the senior would follow that up on Wednesday with a 13-mile run (while his teammates ran eight).
“But the thing that made him so tough,” Mortimer said, “were his Thursday pickup runs.”
Those were a combination of sprints and jogs that gave Withrow the speed that allowed him to break away from his competition in the middle of a three-mile race. That’s what happened at Peoria on Nov. 8.
At the midway point of the state title race, in which he had finished second as a junior, Withrow said he became anxious when he saw Glenbard South’s Eric MacTaggert and Lyons Township’s Brad Topol make their moves.
“I caught back up and said to myself, `I have to go,'” Withrow said after the race. “And I took off, went past MacTaggert and tried not looking back.”
But at the 2-mile mark, he couldn’t help himself. Andrew’s first cross-country champion saw his lead and “knew I had it.”
He ran a similar race at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Nov. 29 in the Foot Locker regional. Withrow’s first mile was 4:58. Then he opened up a 13-second lead at the 2-mile mark with a 4:39 mile. He won that 5,000-meter race in 14:54 as Ryan Deak of Aurora, Colo., finished second in 15:14.
What’s almost humorous is that Withrow’s best mile time–4:26–is, as Mortimer says, “terrible. He’s embarrassed by his mile.” One of the reasons for that unimpressive time is that Withrow suffered a calf injury as a junior and his track season suffered.
But 100-mile weeks over the summer helped him regain his speed and stamina for what became a memorable cross-country season–one that students of the sport are sure to study.
