Boys cross country preview: Open Door's Trevor Taylor came out of nowhere last year

Trevor Taylor wasn't on many people's radar last season. He finished 11th of 20 individual qualifiers at the Elyria Division III district cross country meet in 17:35.14. The Open Door Christian School runner made a nice improvement from the year before, when he also finished 11th as a freshman in 17:57.80, but hadn't had a breakthrough. That came at the Boardman regional, where he was nothing less than sensational. Taylor dropped 43 seconds from his district performance, running 16:51.73 and capturing the 16th and final state-qualifying berth. "My coach (Dave Couture) set up people throughout the race to tell me where I was at the whole time," Taylor said. "I knew during the race that it was going to be close, I was going to be just cutting it. I knew that I had to kick it in that last 800 meters. I passed up the last kid (for 16th place) right before the woods. I knew I was set. I knew where I had to be." Taylor wasn't finished. He made a statement with his performance at the state meet at Fortress Obetz. He finished 53rd out of 186 runners, dropping another 21 seconds from the regional time to finish in 16:30.04. Taylor got caught up a bit in the excitement at the start and was in ninth place through the first 400 meters (1:12.46) before settling in. He went through the first mile in 5:01.48 in 54th place and basically held that spot before moving up one position in the last mile. "Everyone went out so fast," he said. "It was like, 'whoa, I need to calm down a little bit,' especially when I got to that first split and saw that I was up with Luke Snyder (the eventual state champ from Rittman). I knew that I had to chill out a little bit. "That was basically my goal. I just wanted to do the best that I could, run as fast as I could because I knew that it would be difficult to place (top 30). I wanted my time to be there for that race, that's why I came out so strong." Taylor is lasered in when giving credit for his success. His faith, his coach, his teammates. "Without God I wouldn't be anywhere where I am at right now," Taylor said. "I have a great coach. He has coached me since middle school so I've had him coach me all the way through. The way he coaches us is that we peak all the way at the end of our season. He coaches that perfectly." Taylor didn't make the state cut his freshman year but was in the ballpark. He finished 25th out of 101 runners in 17:46.30, nine places and 21.3 seconds off the 16th and final qualifying berth. "My team has helped me a lot with the mental part of the race," said Taylor. "They've helped me all the way through." Junior Charlie Murphy and sophomore Tripp Taylor, Trevor's brother, are the other returnees from a year ago. "Trev has really embraced the work side of it," Couture said. "Early on he was kind of the guy on natural talent that could show up and run well. The last couple of years he's really embraced the work. It's paid off. It paid off last season and he's got big things he wants to do this year. "He's a guy that the moment is never too big for. It's kind of exciting to watch him embrace those things as he's leveled up. He comes into races very well-prepared mentally. He's able to bounce back when things in a race don't go well for him, but it was very impressive how he finished out his year last year." Nolan Raack and Nate Otero, the Nos. 2 and 4 runners for Open Door at 2024 districts, graduated in the spring, leaving it up to the Taylors and Murphy to lead an otherwise young team. "What helped me last year in the postseason was that I just kept a very good pace throughout the whole race," Taylor said. "I go out pretty fast at the beginning because I like to set myself up for a good race. I've always struggled with the mental part. I think that's what I did the best during those races. The mental part of my race was always locked in. "The middle mile does hurt, but sometimes it does depend what race it is, especially if it's in a wooded area and there's no one there cheering you on. You're just there by yourself thinking by yourself. You have to think about who you're racing for, which is God for me, and your teammates obviously." He's competed in local road races since the third grade and started with Open Door after joining the middle school program in sixth grade. "My race times where in the 13s (for 3K) when I first started running middle school," Taylor said. "I started moving up in seventh grade. I remember I had Kaitlyn Reese (now a senior for Avon) who kind of pushed me throughout those races because I wasn't that fast yet. My goal after middle school was heading towards placing at state. That's what I did." Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.