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Photo courtesy of Johnson County Community College

James Carter, a 2008 graduate of Bonner Springs High School, recently completed his freshman season of cross country at Johnson County Community College. He already has earned a place in the JCCC record books after clocking the ninth-fastest 6K time in school history at the JCCC Short Course Classic.

The last we heard about James Carter he was training for the Down Under International Games in Australia over the summer.

Carter, a 2008 Bonner Springs High School graduate, won the 800-meter race, finished eighth in the 1,500 and was a member of the 400 relay team that took third. He would have raced in the 400, but a broken hand prevented him from starting out of the blocks.

“I thought it was a pretty fun experience. I met a lot of new people,” Carter said. “It was like a two-week vacation with some good competition. I also got to see a lot of cool places.”

That experience helped Carter stay in shape for the cross country season at Johnson County Community College this fall. Carter, who was medically cleared only three days prior to the season because of his hand, turned in a solid freshman campaign for the nationally competitive Cavaliers.

The Maple Leaf Invitational at Baker University was Carter’s college debut, and he ran well. He turned in a time of 17:03.86 in the 5,000-meter race, good for a 28th-place finish. He followed that up with a sixth-place finish at JCCC’s first home meet, the Cavalier Cup. He turned in a tough 5K time of 17:47.3.

After those two meets, the distance jumped from 5K to 8K for the next four races. Carter continued his solid performance by turning in a top-20 finish and a top-50 finish. Carter regularly was in the top five runners on the team throughout the season.

In the second race hosted by JCCC, Carter turned in another sixth-place finish in the Short Course Classic — a 6K. His time of 20:08.55 was good for ninth place all-time for a JCCC runner. The following week he helped his team to a second-place finish in the Jayhawk Conference, and then helped JCCC to a third-place finish in the Region VI Championships. His time of 28:04.40 placed him 16th in the race.

At the NJCAA National Championships in Spartansburg, S.C., the Cavilers finished 11th. Carter placed 101st, just missing being counted toward his team’s total. He followed that up with a 40th-place finish with a time of 1:19:55.0 in the NJCAA Half Marathon Championships in Overland Park, helping his team to a third-place finish.

“I was just worried about making it all the way to the end,” Carter said. “We trained for (the half marathon) all year long, but it was fun. I never thought I’d say that about a half marathon.”

Some big changes have taken place in Carter’s life, just like most college freshmen experience during their first semester. He trains seven days a week, totaling at least 70 miles, even running with his team on Sundays for the first time in his running career. Also, he is concentrating on speed work, noting that the type of training in college is superior to the training in high school.

His schoolwork has changed as well. No longer does he have the busy work involved with high school homework, but he has big papers and tests that account for large portions of his grades.

That adjustment has added pressure to the regularly laid back Carter. And the classroom is not the only place where the pressure increased. His coaching staff motivated the runners in practice, even threatening to cut runners from the team if they did not increase their efforts.

“In the bigger meets I was pretty calm until I hit the starting line. I thought ‘it’s only nationals, it’s only nationals,’ Carter said. “But then it hit me. I would think ‘oh man, it’s nationals!’

Next year JCCC should be among the top teams in the nation again, losing only one of their runners.

“I think we all need to stay in shape so we don’t have to spend so much time conditioning next fall,” Carter said. “We just need to do our best to win something, you know, get some rings.”

Carter will have little time to rest from competition. Indoor track season is about to start, and it runs through March. Outdoor track season begins immediately afterward.

His coach at JCCC, Mike Bloemker, expects great things from Carter in the upcoming track seasons.

“James has had a great freshman year in the classroom and on the course,” Bloemker said. “He exceeded my expectations for cross country as a middle distance runner. I really can’t say enough about his efforts.”

Bloemker also thinks that greatness lies just ahead for Carter in track.

“Talk to me again in March, after the indoor season is over,” Bloemker said. “James Carter will be a couple-time All-American runner by that time. He will do amazing things in track.”

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