On Saturday, October 24th, in temperatures hovering in the mid-20s with snow on the ground, the Class A State Cross Country Meet was held at Parkhurst Recreation Area just outside of Jamestown, ND, and the Class B State Cross Country Meet was held further north at the Cooperstown Country Club. The Class A races stayed close to the predictions, whereas the Class B meet had some upsets. This interview is the final of four interviews with the individuals who won state titles this year.
Interview with Class A Girl's Champion Meghan Ford is here.
Interview with Class B Boy's Champion Brian Miller is here.
Interview with Class B Girl's Champion Peyton Gette is here.
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| Smile, you're a state champion! Photo Credit: NDHSAA |
Going into 2020, Bismarck High School had provided 10 of the last 13 individual winners of the Class A Boy's State Cross Country meet. One of those years, 2018, was Sean Korsmo.
Korsmo has been one of the top runners in the state for a few years now. As a freshman, he placed 17th at state cross country, and doubled back by placing 5th in 1600 (4:29), 5th in the 3200 (9:46), and 4th as a member of the 4x800 (8:12) at state track.
As a sophomore, he had a breakout year. He won state cross country with a time of 15:46, and then cleaned up at state track, winning titles in the 1600 (4:25), 3200 (9:32), and as a member of the 4x800 (8:01). 4 state titles in 10th grade isn't too shabby.
As a junior, he placed 2nd at a FAST state cross country meet, finishing in 15:33 to fellow junior Brady Yoder's (Dickinson) 15:21. Of course, track season did not have a state meet because of COVID.
Entering senior year, Korsmo was a favorite in cross country. In the first coaches poll, he was ranked 2nd to Yoder, but after that, he was ranked 1st for the next 6 weeks. Going into state, he won the West Region meet (defeating Yoder), and was only ranked behind Jacob Knodle (WF Sheyenne) from the East Region. At the West Region Meet, Korsmo won by almost 10 seconds in a time 15:26. The table was set.
At this year's state meet, Sean Korsmo of Bismarck High School placed 1st with a time of 15:28, 5 seconds ahead of Jacob Knodle, with Brady Yoder in 4th at 15:38. Each of the top five runners were under 16:00. He won his 2nd state title in cross country!
Outside of that, he has been tackling some trail running as well, including racing the National High School Trail Championships in Salida, Colorado this previous summer, finishing an impressive 2nd place! Here's a description of the race, followed by an interview of him with the American Trail Running Association:
"The 5.4-mile trail championship course started on a dirt road along the Arkansas River near downtown Salida — elevation 7,057 feet –and reached a high point of 7,558 feet. After less than a mile, the course continued on the Salida Mountain Trail System, with terrain comprised primarily of mountain-biking friendly single-track switchbacks. The race finished at Riverside Park in downtown Salida."
Interview with American Trail Running Association
Below are the questions I posed to Korsmo, and his answers.
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1.) First of all, congrats on the victory at state!
There was a lot of talent in that race, evidenced by the top 4 runners all
under 15:40. You were one of the discussed front-runners going into the race.
How did you mentally prepare?
My mindset for the state meet was
obviously that I wanted to win. For me, it’s as simple as that. I have the same
mindset for every race I compete in, and it’s always that I want to win. It
doesn’t matter who is in the race, how fast they are, or how much better they
are than me. I’m not always going to win, I understand that, but I’m going to
do my best to win. To mentally prepare myself for all of my races I pray a lot.
I always feel at peace after, but I am ready.
2.) With fresh snow on the ground and sub-freezing
temperatures, did your approach for warming up or preparing for the race
change?
It was pretty cold the day of the
state meet. That is usually expected because we live in North Dakota, but I am
comfortable running in sub-freezing temperatures. I absolutely hate running on
treadmills, so during the winter I only train outside in temperatures much
colder than we had at the state meet. The cold air is a little tougher to
breathe in, so I did wear a facemask to try to make it a little easier to
breathe. I wore the facemask through warmups and took it off at the start line.
3.) Talk a little about the race. How did it play
out?
I figured the race was going to be
pretty fast right off the bat, so I decided to just follow the leaders. At the
half mile mark, Jacob Knodle put in a pretty good surge, and I followed with a
good sized pack behind me. We came through the mile just under five minutes,
which wasn’t too bad for me. I had gone out harder than that at WDA, so I was
feeling pretty good. I ran in the back of the front pack which put me in fifth
place behind Jacob Knodle, Brady Yoder, Ben Anteau, and Mason Kindle. We ran in
that same pack until just before the two mile mark. Ben put in a good surge,
and I followed closely behind. I could feel both Knodel and Yoder a few meters
behind me, but the pack had broken away from Kindle. We maintained our same
places until the four hundred meter mark. I remember telling myself “Sean you
gotta go,” and I prayed “Lord help me with this,” and I took off. I passed Ben,
and took the lead for the first time in the race. I remember everything went
kind of blurry as I sprinted towards the finish and eventually crossed the
finish line.
4.) You’ve had state titles previously in track and
cross country. What makes this title different? How does it feel?
This state title was very
different for a lot of reasons. It’s my senior year, my last chance to win a
state title in cross country, and the fact that we didn’t know if we were going
to have a season was also a huge factor. Yes, it was different, but overall, it
was the same as any other season. The goal is always to win, I might not always
achieve that, but it is always my goal.
5.) Brady Yoder (Dickinson) was 4th
today, but he beat you to take the State XC title last year, and has taken a
close second to you in many other state championship races in both track and
XC. What is like to race each other? Is there any kind of rivalry or understood
competition between the two of you? Do you feel like you bring out the best of
each other?
I love racing Brady. We are pretty
good friends. We don’t have any bad blood between us or anything. Sure, we both
want to beat each other every race, but that is just our competitive nature. He
is a super awesome guy, and an amazing competitor. I love racing him, I know he
makes me so much better, and I hope I do the same for him. I don’t think I
would be nearly as fast as I am right now without him.
6.) Obviously this year is different. We all know
that every walk of life has been changed by the pandemic. Your track season was
cut in the spring, and you didn’t know how cross country would play out. How
did you cope with not having track last season?
To cope with not having a track
season, I ran a lot. I fell in love with running more than I ever had in my
life. It’s pretty boring not having much to do, so I would go out and run a
couple times a day, and I loved it. I would have rather raced, but I knew it
wasn’t possible. I couldn’t control it, but I knew I needed to enjoy the time
God gave me to just run.
7.) What has it been like to train through the
pandemic and keep your sights on the goals you have?
I love running, so it was never
tough for me to go out and run. In the spring I knew I was training for this
cross country season, and I was going to be ready for whatever race I might’ve
been able to run this fall.
8.) Bismarck High has had now had 11 of the past 14
individual men’s State Class A Cross Country champions. What does it mean to
you to be part of that line of success and tradition?
I think more than anything, having
that many champions reflects the amazing coaches at Bismarck High. It’s really
how Anderson and Zittleman have developed runners over the last 15 years. They
don’t just get lucky with the best kids in the state always ending up at
Bismarck High. There’s no way it’s luck. They take good runners, and they make
them better. It really means a lot to me to be a part of the tradition and
success at Bismarck High. It’s awesome, and like I said, it really reflects how
great the coaches are at Bismarck High.
9.) What does
the rest of cross country season look like for you? Are there any races to go
to? How about for track- what are your
goals there?
Although Nike and Footlocker are
canceled this year, there is a race in Indiana on November 15 that I competed
in. I ran at a national meet with guys from 35 different states, so I knew
there was going to be good competition. Even knowing how fast some of the guys
could run, I still wanted to win. The conditions were not ideal with winds up
to forty miles per hour. I was trailing the lead pack for the majority of the
race. My goal was to run down the pack in the last mile, and pass as many guys
as I could. I ended up giving the lead pack a little too big of a lead. I still
ran down quite a few guys in the last mile, but it wasn’t quite where I wanted
to be. I took 16th overall, and earned All American honors. I am happy with how
I did, but I always want to do better. Right now, I will continue running
normal mileage, but for track the goal is to be better than I currently am. I’m
not a big time guy, but I’m going to try and get very fast. For me, it’s as
simple as that.
10.) Do
you have plans to run in college? Have you committed anywhere?
I plan on running in college, and
I am very excited to compete at the collegiate level next year. I have talked
to a few colleges, but as of right now I am not sure where I will be running.
11.) To
what or to whom can you attribute the success that you’ve experienced?
First, all the success I’ve had
has been given to me by God. I thank him everyday for all that he has blessed
me with, and allowing me success in running. I couldn’t have done anything
without God’s help. That’s where I credit all of my success. Obviously, Darrell
Anderson has done so much for me through my five years competing for Bismarck
High, and he is a huge part of who I am, and what I’ve done. He is one of the
greatest coaches out there, and the runners coming out of Bismarck High are
proof of that.
12.) What
does running mean to you?
The root of running for me is
using my talents to glorify God. I’ve been given a gift, and I love to use it.
I couldn’t imagine my life without running, or who I would be without running.
It has changed my life in so many ways, and it’s taught me so much about life.
Running has been a part of who I am, and even when I can’t run anymore, what
I’ve experienced will still have a huge impact on me.
13.) What’s
your favorite place to run in North Dakota?
My favorite place is a ten mile
route that Anderson has shown me that he calls Dead Rabbit. It is in the north
western part of Bismarck. It mostly consists of hilly, dirt roads that really
show off the beauty of North Dakota. It almost doesn’t feel like North Dakota,
it is much hillier than most people would expect from North Dakota, and doesn’t
feel like just flat plains. It’s super beautiful and a super fun run.
14.) What
adversity have you experienced with running, and what did you do to overcome
it?
I had severe back problems my
freshman year that prevented me from competing at WDA, and left me injured for
state. I injured it a few days before WDA in the middle of the run. I couldn’t
make it back to Bismarck High, so I had to walk the rest of the run which ended
up being around three miles. That was super tough for me. I still wanted to
race with one of my teammates, Morgan Fairbairn. We had raced all season
together, and usually placed within ten seconds of each other. The week of
state, I couldn't practice for the first few days of the week. I finally came
back on Thursday, two days before the state meet. During the meet, I tried to
run with Morgan for as long as I could, but after the first mile of pain, I
started to fall back. I remember just trying to hold on as long as I could to
the top twenty and found myself in twenty-first with only a few hundred meters
left. I put my pain aside and ran as hard as I could. I ended up finishing
seventeenth, which was super frustrating for me. I was happy that I was All
State, but I had wanted to do much better. I rested, healed, and did physical
therapy in the off season, and I thank the Lord for healing me. I remember
praying during that time, and I mainly said, “Lord, I don’t know why this is
happening, but I know it’s for the best,” and it was. I have gotten much
stronger since then, and I think the experience made me better. Another huge
difficulty I faced was breaking my toe sophomore year. I broke it in September,
and I knew I needed to get back to running. It was tough, I had trained a lot
for the season, but I never got down about breaking my toe. I remember I prayed
that I could continue to run, and that this was part of some awesome plan, and
then I went to work. I broke it on a Wednesday, I biked on Thursday and I tried
to run on Friday. I made it two blocks. I went back to biking, and over the
weekend I swam. On Monday I ran on an antigravity treadmill, and on Tuesday I
was back. I went for my first real run on Tuesday, and although it hurt, I made
it through. I spent the rest of the season in a boot, only taking it off when I
ran. I also couldn’t get my foot into my spike, so I had to wear a racing flat
with more support instead of a spike. I was determined not to let my toe slow
me down, even at state. God helped me get through the season, and I ended up winning
state. Other than that, I have never been ranked first going into a state meet,
but that has never mattered to me. I will always try as hard as I can to win.
15.) What
words of advice can you give to those who are interested in running?
A lot of people ask me how I enjoy
running. They always say they want to get into it, but they don’t enjoy it. I
can’t make people love running, but I can help people get better. I think the
main key to getting better at running is consistency. Cross country is not a
sport that you can fake. If you want to be good, you have to train. There is no
way around it. There is no secret to getting better, it’s just running everyday
and working hard. This applies to everyone, but especially for people who want
to start running.
16.) Do
you have any runners from North Dakota that you’ve drawn inspiration from or
look up to? What about professional runners?
I really look up to the guys that
graduated before me, Jake Leingang and Sam Clausnitzer especially. There are a
lot more guys that Anderson has told me stories about, and I really look up to
those guys as well. I look up to everything they did while running at Bismarck
High. Everytime I walk by the trophy case, and the majority of it is filled
with cross country trophies, it amazes me. Hearing their stories makes me want
to be a better runner. I want to be more like those guys, but those guys also
set high goals. I am very competitive, and a little part of me compares myself
to them. Of course, I want to be better than they were, but I know that might
not be the case, and that’s okay. More than anything, those guys just help me
become better. I know I may never be as good as they were, but I really want to
try. Those are the main guys I strive to run like. Sure there are cool
professional runners, but it means a lot more to me, and I feel much more
connected with the guys who graduated before me. That being said, I was
introduced to Tayte Pollmann who is a Nike Trail Runner. Through friends I was
given the opportunity to stay with him this summer, and we became friends. As
professional runners go, he is by far my favorite, and he is an incredible
person.
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