AMG cross country: Carl Ellis Corley masters muddy racing

In horse racing, a thoroughbred that remains competitive when the track has been reduced to a quagmire by rain is known as a "mudder."

Bleckley County's Carl Ellis Corley was worthy of the moniker in this year's GHSA Class AA cross country championship.

"Muddiest course I've seen in 27 years of coaching," Royals head coach Shelly Cranford said of the track in early November in Carrollton.

So bad was the 3.1-mile layout that after the Class AA boys race, which was the ninth of the day, it was shortened 300 yards to eliminate a portion that was deemed unsafe to maneuver for the Class AAAAAA and Class A public races.

The mud was no problem, however, for Corley, who slipped, slid and splashed his way over the distance in 17 minutes, 50.67 seconds to win the Class AA individual title and lead the Royals to the team championship. It was the first boys state crown in any sport since Bleckley County became one school district more than three decades ago.

For his performance, Corley has been named The Telegraph's All-Middle Georgia Cross Country Runner of the Year.

"No doubt it was the worst course I'd ever run," said Corley, who's been running competitively since the sixth grade at Bleckley Middle School. "But it was the same for everyone. Things happened to work out for me on that day."

The Royals, who prepped for state with a 10th straight region title, did have some experience on an off track. They had competed on a soggy course early in the season at a meet in Panama City, Florida, and routinely practice in the rain.

"Unless there's lightning, we're gonna run outside," said Corley, the last of five siblings in his family to run in middle school or high school at Bleckley County.

One of those rainy practices came the Monday before the state meet.

"You never know what you might find at state," Cranford said. "We had a flooding rain here into that Monday before (the meet), and I try to tell the kids to prepare for anything that might come up that we can simulate in practice.

"So, I sent them out that day, and it was pretty bad. Nothing like they ended up running on (championship meet) Saturday, but it gave them an idea."

The state race quickly became a two-man duel, much as Cranford and Corley thought it might. After the 212-runner field stretched out, Corley and Pace Academy's Jack Douglas were comfortably in front.

The two had hooked up in the Wesleyan Invitational in Norcross in the season's debut race, with Corley pulling away in the final couple of hundred meters to win by six seconds. Douglas was the top returning state competitor from 2014, and the win signaled the chance for a special season for Corley.

"That gave me a lot of confidence," he said of the first of his eight individual titles during the year. "I just got better and better as the season progressed."

Added Cranford, "I felt like given the summer he had in road races and then winning (at Wesleyan), he'd have a shot at state."

Corley and Cranford knew Douglas likely would be the top challenger. Corley didn't let the conditions enter into his pre-race thinking.

"We both had to run on the same track," said Corley, whose nickname is "Scooter." "I knew how I ran that first race against him, and I figured I'd make (the strategy) work again."

Once they separated themselves from the pack, Corley stayed a step or two behind Douglas. His aim was to kick hard between a half- and quarter-mile before the finish to pull away.

With Douglas remaining competitive, the kick came a little later than planned.

"I didn't feel good at the half-mile, so when we were at 400, I knew I had to go and whatever happens, happens," Corley said. "I got a little gap on him pretty quick, maybe a second or so, and was able to pull away as we went on."

Ironically, Corley's margin of victory over Douglas was the same as in the Wesleyan meet. Four of Corley's teammates finished eighth and 10th through 12th, respectively, to give the Royals 42 points and a nine-point cushion on Pace.

Bleckley County had finished third in each of the previous three seasons.

"What I did was just a little piece of the pie," said Corley, who joined Ashley Arnold, who won a girls state title in 2006, as the school's only individual state winners in cross country. "Winning state has been our goal since middle school. That's bigger for me."

With Corley and three of the four teammates whose times counted with his returning, the Royals will be a marked crew in 2016.

"We knew we had a shot this year if we worked hard and ran our best when it counted," Corley said. "Now we know we can do it."

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 6:42 PM with the headline "AMG cross country: Carl Ellis Corley masters muddy racing ."