Ahead of the pack: Athens Academy's Block excelling as a freshman

Athens Academy cross country coach Geoffrey Walton had observed freshman Anna Marian Block several years before she joined the Spartans' varsity squad, but he didn't know she'd contribute so much so soon.

"We've known for a while that she had the potential to be a good runner," Walton said of Block. "Anna Marian has always loved running. Last year, when she was in middle school, she had some really strong races in shorter distances, but we were excited to see how that would translate to the 5k. We didn't know, but since that time she's ended up exceeding expectations."

In her first varsity season, the 5-foot-6 Block has run in six races and has won them all. Last Tuesday, she finished first - among 46 runners - in 19 minutes, 30.97 seconds at the 31st annual Clarke-Oconee Championships and on Saturday she crossed the line first in 19:55.13 in a 75-runner field at the Carrollton Last Chance meet.

Block, who will lead the Spartans (ranked No. 2 in Class A Private polls) on Saturday at the Area 2-A meet at Athens Academy, admits she's been taken aback by her early and consistent success.

"I've been a little surprised," she said. "Coming into high school, I didn't really know what to expect, but I did pretty well in middle school. In my first race, I just went out and ran my race and I won. I've been running my race ever since."

Walton says that thus far in her career, Block has enjoyed setting a quick pace and getting out ahead of the pack. But he points to her early October performance at the Gene Mullin Invitational at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., as perhaps her best race of the year, precisely because she wasn't the leader.

At Furman, Block came from behind late to pass Aquinas' Shannon Fair (who has four first-place finishes this fall) and win the 234-runner race in a personal-best time of 18:34.63, some 10 seconds ahead of Fair.

"The Gene Mullin Invitational was the most competitive race she's been in," Walton said."She went out and was not in the lead until really the last 400 meters. She just put the hammer down right at the end and had an incredible finish, which is tough to do sometimes when you're not in the lead - chasing down runners is hard to do. I think that gave her a lot of confidence that she could run with competitive runners."

"People had been telling me about (Fair), and she's a really great runner and she's really fast," Block said. "(Walton) was yelling at me during the last 400 meters, telling me that I could catch her. I really didn't know if I had enough left, but I was able to come from behind and win, which was very exciting."

Besides Block's aggressive spirit ("She's probably the most competitive person I've ever coached," Walton said) and her obvious talent, the freshman is also benefitting greatly from training with teammate Emily Ballard-Myer, a sophomore who has been a top-10 finisher in every race this year.

"Emily was our No. 1 runner last year and she was our frontrunner and had a successful year, and sometimes that can be hard when all of a sudden you're the No. 2 runner, but I think Emily has thrived in that spot," Walton said. "She doesn't feel the pressure of being the No. 1 runner but every day in practice she and Anna Marian train together and they're pushing each other, going hard."

"They're a very good team and it's fun to watch them running together. Anna Marian is this bubbly, energetic freshman and Emily is more of a quiet, cerebral sophomore, but when they train together, they balance each other well."

"Since I was in the seventh grade, I've trained with Emily and we'd run together," Block added. "Sometimes I'd win, sometimes she'd win and once we finished in a tie. We're good friends and I've enjoyed training with her because she pushes me - she'll push me and I'll push her. We love working together and I just love our team. Everybody is really great."

Saturday's Area 2-A meet will feature three top-10 teams in Athens Academy, Providence Christian and Hebron Christian, and frequent state-meet contestants Athens Christian and George Walton are also in the mix. The top four teams and top six individuals advance to the state meet, which will be held Nov. 8 in Carrollton.

"I'm very excited about the area meet," Block said. "We've been talking about this for a while and our goal is to win state. The meet is at our course, so we're all really excited about that because we haven't run on our course in a while - we know all the tricks of our course. It's going to be a really good race and I'm really excited to run in it."