The Times Argus Fall Sports Guide 2018
Crompton: Cross-Country Co-Runner of the Year
By JAMES BIGGAM
and LUKE CATLIN
Y
ears of torturous training
sessions paid off in spades this
fall for U-32 senior Andrew
Crompton, who shares Times Argus
Runner of the Year honors with team-
mate Waylon Kurts. Crompton won
four races and led the Raiders to their
third consecutive state championship,
breaking the tape in 16 minutes, 53.5
seconds during the Division II race in
Thetford.
“I can be perfectly focused, which is
hard to learn as a high school runner,”
he said. “And being able to focus is
hard for a full 5K. I would say that is
one of the main reasons I have been
successful. I have put in the work over
the last four years and then to be able
to focus when it counts.”
Crompton’s older sister Kaylyn is a
2015 U-32 graduate who is currently
an endurance star at Castleton Univer-
sity. During middle school, Crompton
made the trek to Thetford to watch his
sister race, and he never dreamed he’d
be a state champion himself. After
a successful eighth-grade season, he
made the immediate leap to varsity,
joining a long-distance crew that has
also fueled six straight championships
in track and fi eld.
“We just want to keep this culture
of hard work going for our program,”
Crompton said. “I trust our team to do
the work, and not to tarnish the repu-
tation that we have built over the last
eight or so years.”
U-32 coach Andrew Tripp refers to
his top senior as “AC” and insists that
he’s been good all along. Crompton is
one of just a few Raiders to post top-
10 fi nishes at states all four years. He
placed 10th as a freshman (18:01.3),
10th as a sophomore (18:15.6) and
third last year (17:19.9).
But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
A stomach injury forced Crompton to
drop out of a few races in his junior
season, and it wasn’t clear if the
problem would persist. Following his
third-place fi nish at states, he entered
New Englands with lofty goals before
an unlikely accident spoiled his race.
“AC fi nally got healthy and he got
fl at-tired — a guy stepped on his shoe
and it came off,” Tripp said. “And then
he put it on three times and it kept fall-
ing off. It was really just bad luck after
a year of injury.”
Setbacks have been scarce during
Crompton’s senior season and con-
some of Vermont’s top D-I runners
while placing 10th at the Thetford
Woods Trail Run (17:23.85) and 11th
at the Manhattan Invitational. He won
the NVAC Mountain Championships at
Randolph in 16:53.5.
“His better races seem to be when
he’s controlled at the start and then can
close really hard,” Tripp said. “It’s just
his style. He’s been healthy, and frank-
ly it’s only a few freak injuries over the
past few years that have kept him from
KURTS AND CROMPTON
HEAD-TO-HEAD MATCHUPS
Sept. 1 / Essex Invitational
Andrew Crompton (sixth, 16:57) Waylon Kurts (16:57.2)
Sept. 6 / NVAC meet at U-32
Andrew Crompton (fi rst, 17:51.41) Waylon Kurts (second, 17:53.3)
Sept. 24 / Manchester (N.H.) Invitational
Waylon Kurts (25th, 16:40) Andrew Crompton (69th, 17:22)
Sept. 29 / U-32 Invitational
Andrew Crompton (fi rst, 16:18.1) Waylon Kurts (second, 16:35.36)
Oct. 6 / Thetford Woods Trail Run
Waylon Kurts (fourth, 16:53.04) Andrew Crompton (10th, 17:23.85)
Oct. 13 / Manhattan Invitational
Waylon Kurts (sixth, 13:01.9) Andrew Crompton (11th, 13:13.4)
Oct. 20 / NVAC Mountain Championships
Andrew Crompton (fi rst, 17:01) Waylon Kurts (third, 17:24.5)
Oct. 27 / D-II State Championships
Andrew Crompton (fi rst, 16:53.5) Waylon Kurts (third, 17:33.3)
Nov. 10 / New Englands
Waylon Kurts (25th, 16:32.7) And rew Crompton (129th, 17:36.3)
sistency has been a theme. He placed
sixth at the season-opening Essex
Invitational and won a league meet at
U-32 fi ve days later (17:51.4). He was
69th at the Manchester (N.H.) Invita-
tional in 17:22 and closed out Septem-
ber by winning the U-32 Invitational
(16:18.1).
“Being able to train through that
(stomach injury) and then coming
back to being able do what I have done
this season has defi nitely been good,”
Crompton said. “It’s great to fi nally be
able to race at my highest level that I
think I can race at.”
Crompton held his ground against
being at this level.”
Setting a personal record Saturday is
one of Crompton’s big goals, and he’s
proven that he can peak for big races.
“What (Tripp) has us do defi nitely
has worked,” Crompton said. “Delay-
ing speed work until later in the season
has been a good call. I’d say my best
race is still yet to be run. And I’m
happy with how I progressed through
the season.”
Crompton is also an indoor track
standout and he plans to continue rac-
ing in college at D-I UVM or Harvard
or D-III Haverford or RPI. He credits
Kurts for pushing him in training runs
and races, with both taking turns at the
front. A week ago they ran 1-kilome-
ter repeats 10 times with 90 seconds
between intervals on a snowy stretch
of back roads. Last Wednesday their
speed workout featured laps around the
U-32 parking lot in a squall.
“Waylon shares the same ambition
and the same drive as I do, and we
can defi nitely see that in workouts,”
Crompton said. “We challenge each
other to push ourselves to the edge,
so it’s amazing to be able to share this
with him.”
The Raiders’ 1-2 punch also set the
tone for the rest of the team, and this
year the school’s junior varsity squad
could have contended for a title. The
culture of success at U-32 is unde-
niable, but Tripp knows that runners
like Crompton and Kurts don’t come
around often.
“AC is faster in a 100 or 400 or 800,
but they’re both basically strength run-
ners,” Tripp said. “Waylon looks like a
mad man at the end of races: grimac-
ing, bugs in his teeth, hair fl ying. He
looks like a pirate, so you can really
see the effort. AC defi nitely looks
calmer. But I’ve never had an athlete
who runs as hard as Andrew. During
workouts he turns himself inside out.
They both actually have that. And
that’s not something that’s coachable.”
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