Dekalb’s Driver Sets New Personal Best At State

Dekalb County sophomore Ben Driver set a new personal time at the State Cross Country Championships, the lone Tiger to make it to the state meet.

Also a basketball and baseball player, Driver said he did not participate last year due to scheduling concerns, but never lost his passion for running. This season, Driver set multiple personal records, even at last week’s regional meet. Driver said he woke up the morning of the state meet with a pack of butterflies in his stomach.

“When I got there and started warming up it kind of just went away,” Driver said. “I was like ‘well, might as well just have fun with it’. Because I knew, I wasn’t going to really beat anyone or get first. So, I was just going to have fun and the personal record just happened.”

Driver was wrong in his assessment though, he beat out half of the participants, placing 118th out of 255 runners. He set a new personal best time of 18:41. The race was held at Sanders Ferry Park and Driver said going in he was familiar with the course and the challenges that would arise.

“The first mile felt really good,” Driver said. “I always struggle on the second mile, but I did good on it too and I think that’s what really helped me. Because I did really good on that and you get fatigued going up those hills because those hills are really tough.”

Dekalb County Cross Country Coach Kristen Vanvranken was able to coach Driver all three years of middle school and said it is a blessing to have him back doing cross country. She said that seeing him come back to running and continuously improve was awesome to see.

“We are super proud of him and he should be proud of himself,” Vanvranken said. “An athlete like Ben, a person like Ben, a student like Ben, he is the dream athlete. He’s self motivated, he puts in the work, he’s very competitive and he’s a team player too.”

Driver said he is excited to get into basketball and baseball season, but is already looking forward to cross country starting again.