Mackinaw City's Braylon Currie flourishing in early days of cross country career
MACKINAW CITY – It’s never too late to try something different.
Not too long ago, Mackinaw City's Braylon Currie was just trying to find a way to get himself into better shape.
So, he decided to consult with one of Mackinaw City’s greatest cross country runners – former all-stater and good friend Lars Huffman, a 2023 graduate.
“Ever since the eighth grade Lars was like, ‘You should join cross, you should join cross, you’d be good at it,’ and I didn’t want to at first, but I realized it was Lars’ last season my freshman year, and I was like, ‘You know what? I should join cross next year,’ so Lars got me into it, for sure,” said Currie, a sophomore.
Just three meets into his young running career, Currie is already thriving on the course.
On Thursday, Currie had his best race yet by clocking a personal-best 19:38 time and earning second individually at the first Northern Lakes Conference meet at The Headlands in Mackinaw City.
“I felt good today, but I probably could’ve ran faster,” Currie said. “(Cross country is) a really fun sport, I really like it, I’m really enjoying it. The workouts are good, but I have joy in running. After you run, you feel so good, and you feel like you accomplished something.
“This team is like a second family. They’re fun and they’re hard workers.”
HUFFMANS: Mackinaw City’s Lars, Larissa Huffman to continue athletic careers at St. Norbert College
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Mackinaw City's Currie voted Daily Tribune's Week 1 Athlete of the Week
Finally making the decision to run back in May, Currie went to work, logging several miles and building a solid base during the summer.
“I’d probably run three or four miles, and then I started building my stamina and went to like six and seven miles, and I’d have 20 to 30-mile weeks. I kind of got into a groove and it kind of became a routine for me,” Currie said. “I always took Sundays off, and sometimes Saturdays if I was hurting, or had 32 or 35-mile weeks.”
Right there to help Currie was Huffman, as the two worked together in the summer.
While Currie couldn’t quite keep up with Huffman, he learned a lot and built confidence along the way.
“He (Huffman) was a huge influence, and that’s probably my best friend, and he helped me get into everything,” Currie said. “He helped me train for sports, lift, he got me into a lot of the stuff I do now, so this is all kudos to him.”
Thursday was just the third career 5-kilometer race for Currie, who looked smooth as he led the Mackinaw City boys to first place in their first NLC meet of the fall.
More than happy to see Currie join the squad is cross country coach Heather Huffman, who’s been impressed by the rapid progression of Mackinaw City’s top runner at the moment.
“He’s very committed,” said Huffman. “If you ask him to do the weekend runs, he does the weekend runs. He helps lead the team. He’s a little bit on the quieter side because he’s newer, but he’s doing well. He’s really trying to get his times down. He’s really motivated to get those times down and do better each meet.”
With Currie fully committed to cross country, he’s now eyeing some major team and individual accomplishments.
“I want to get first team all-conference, and I want to try and get a sub-18:30 (time) by the end of the year, individually. For team, I just want us to win conference,” Currie said. “We really want it because ever since the first day of training in the summer, the main goal was winning conference, so we want it, we train for it, and I think we can get it.”
Comet boys strong in first conference race
Overall, it was a terrific team day for the Comets, who saw seven runners finish in the top 10, including Ben Strittmatter (21:09), who took fourth, Kyle Valot (22:09), who was fifth, Myran Thompson (22:11), who earned sixth, Wesley House (23:48), who recorded seventh, Tanyon Pierce (23:52), who registered eighth, and Mikey Sullivan (24:54), who earned 10th. Connor Birchfield (27:11) finished 14th.
For the Mackinaw City girls, Cynthia Thompson took fifth at 34:43.
Contact sports editor Jared Greenleaf at jgreenleaf@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @sportsCDT
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Mackinaw City's Braylon Currie off to fast start in cross country career
