Veach chasing Shelbyville history at IHSAA State Championship Meet

Shia Veach will cross the finish line one more time as a Golden Bear.

The Shelbyville senior will run in the IHSAA State Championship Cross Country Meet Saturday at 1 p.m. at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.

Veach is the first Golden Bear to qualify for the boys state meet since Sean Hudson in 2003. And in his final race, his goal is to eclipse Hudson’s school record time of 15 minutes 36 seconds.

Veach, who ran 15:38 in the regional, admits he will be nervous come race time, but that can work in a positive way on a course he is familiar with.

“It’s really hilly, even more hilly than CERAland,” said Veach of the Terre Haute course versus the Columbus course where the regional was held. “It’s a little bit tougher, but I have been on it before. I know at the beginning, that first (kilometer) is really downhill.”

Earlier this season, Veach finished runner-up in his event at the Nike Twilight Meet on the LaVern Gibson course. His time of 15:54 then means he needs to drop 19 seconds to surpass the mark set by Hudson more than two decades ago.

The strategy at the state meet will be similar to the one he used in the regional -- locate a familiar runner with good speed and stay on pace.

“I wanted to get out there and try to get out front but as I got out there, it got really packed,” said Veach of the regional race Saturday where he finished 12^th overall. “I was trying to go as hard as I could.

“Then I saw Liam (Fennig) of Franklin. I’ve raced against him forever so I just kind of stuck with him. My goal was to stay with him.”

The strategy worked well. Fennig finished eighth in 15:33 and will compete again Saturday in Terre Haute.

Shelbyville's Shia Veach, second from right, finished second at the Nike Twilight Meet this season held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.

Shelbyville cross country coach Whitney Campbell wants to see the most confident version of Veach step to the starting line.

“He is so much more confident and focused, and you can tell when he is on it,” said Campbell. “When he is on, he is dangerous, and I could tell at (the one-kilometer mark) this past race and he was in 30^th place and he was passing people, I just knew. Nobody can stop him when he makes a charge like that.

“He is so competitive and has a really awesome running instinct, how to feel people out and get a visual on it and pretty much go for the kill and run people down.”

The state championship race includes 25 teams from five regional races as well as the top 15 individuals not on an advancing team from each of those regionals. It is a rather large field with seriously competitive runners.

“It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be hard,” said Campbell. “There are a lot of nerves. There are a lot of individuals that haven’t ran against each other. There will be a lot of teams really going for it after coasting for weeks.”

The key will be for Veach to stay competitive during a hectic first minute of the race and find his pace.

“He is really good when he can target somebody,” said Campbell. “If he finds his person (like Fennig) or his group (Veach is in a starting box with Highland’s Malachy Colglazier and Oak Hill’s Brantley Blair) and has to work his way up, I think he will be in good shape.”

A strong finish to his Shelbyville career could help springboard him into making his decision about college. There is already interest from a variety of schools, but Veach is not yet ready to make a final decision.

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