By Rick Cassano

WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP – Perseverance has been just as important as running ability for Mason Barnes.

The Harrison High School senior has dealt with a series of physical ailments since last spring, but he’s battled through the adversity to play a starring role for the Wildcats’ boys cross country team this fall.

“I feel like I’m pretty much back at full strength,” Barnes said after leading Harrison to a seventh-place finish in the Division II district meet Saturday morning at Voice of America Park. “My faith in Jesus really helps me push through all the injuries and run fast.”

Barnes placed 13th individually on a day when all seven Wildcat runners posted personal-best times in the 5,000-meter race.

The top nine teams qualified for the regional meet next Saturday in Troy, so Harrison will run at that level for the second straight year. The Wildcats took 13th place at the regional last season.

Barnes checked in with a time of 16:22.8 on Saturday. Teammates that followed were senior Hayden Rogers (17th, 16:27.6), sophomore Luke Cruz (41st, 17:44.7), junior Owen Lanham (48th, 18:40.6), seniors Bennett Ahr (52nd, 18:56.8) and Antonio Lorta (59th, 19:21.2), and freshman Ryan Shank (64th, 19:37.9).

“We were expecting to have a good day,” Harrison coach Steve Barnes said. “We’ve had some ups and downs this season, so we weren’t sure what was going to happen, but everybody went out and just killed it. Everybody ran a PR … you don’t have that too often.

“Everybody competed really hard, so it was a great day. The kids really got after it and decided they were going to go to regionals today.”

It was a cool, clear morning for running at the district event, which included a reconfigured course at VOA.

“It was a really good course and perfect weather,” Rogers said. “I knew going into it that the course was going be a fast course, probably a PR course, and it was.”

“It was really nice,” Mason Barnes said. “The course was pretty flat and super fast, probably the best course we’ve run on all year.”

Barnes said it was pretty enjoyable running normally without the injury bug hounding him. He missed track season last spring because of a stress fracture in his femur, then fell down the stairs carrying his Xbox at the end of May and suffered a foot injury that was eventually diagnosed as bone bruises.

“We thought he had turf toe, but eight weeks later he still could barely walk on it, then we took him for an MRI,” Steve Barnes said of his son. “He really didn’t train all of June and July, and we found out it could take three to six months to heal. So it started to make sense why it hadn’t healed, but we were kind of running out of time.

“The next few weeks it got a little better and he started jogging on it. He just really got a late start. He’s really been able to do the full training for about the last three weeks.”

Mason Barnes said he worked so hard trying to come back and get in shape that his back and hips started bothering him. But he kept fighting his way through it and has now started to find his groove.

Barnes said he started and finished strong Saturday.

“The last mile I had to grind it out a little bit, but I passed two people at the finish,” said Barnes, noting that he set a personal record by around 30 seconds.

Rogers said his time was 22 seconds better than his previous best effort.

“I was definitely happy with what I was able to do,” Rogers said. “It was great that the team qualified for regionals. That’s exactly what my goal was at the beginning of the season.”

Coach Barnes said Harrison is a long shot to get to state as a team, but his son and Rogers have the ability to compete for state berths as individuals.

“It looks like there’s too many good teams ahead of us to make it as a team, but we can go up and compete and finish the season strong,” Steve Barnes said. “Mason and Hayden are going to have to run really well, but they’re possibly going to have a shot to make it out.

“We’ve had some different injuries and things, but they really compete on meet day and that makes a difference. I feel like they’ll continue to compete at regionals, so we’ll see what happens.”

Added Rogers, “We can only just do our best and see where that takes us.”

Barnes placed 46th (17:17.5) and Rogers was 120th (19:07.5) in last season’s regional meet.

The Wildcat girls will also be running next weekend at Troy. They’re in Division I this year, so they didn’t have district competition and are automatically in the regional.