COVINGTON, Ga. — For just the second time on Newton High School’s current campus, the Rams hosted the State Farm Open cross country meet on Aug. 13. This year, the highest achiever from Newton County came from Newton’s boys team with Kenton “KJ” George. 

He placed second in the boys varsity 5K run with an 18:11.90 final time. George, a senior, was satisfied with his finish in the inaugural meet of the 2022 season. 

“It was a good place to start off with my first race of the season,” George said. 

George didn’t accomplish this by accident. He ran, worked out and overall prepared for the meet. Then, when he began the race, George focused solely on what he could control. 

“I ran my race and kept my pace,” George said. “I didn’t worry too much about the first place person’s race. And that’s [the biggest lesson I learned] was to run my own race. Don’t go at anyone’s pace. Just keep at your pace and do the best you can.” 

Focusing on his individual performance didn’t take away from George’s experience running in the second annual State Farm Open, though. 

He said it felt great running at a home meet for the second straight year. 

“It’s always a good experience when you can run at home,” George said. “A cross country meet is a lot like a basketball court or a football field. I used to play basketball and I know how it feels to play at home. It was a pretty cool experience to run at home again.”  

But running in a home meet has signified more to George and the Rams cross country program. For George, he feels like it symbolizes the growth of the program. 

“It’s getting more people to look at it now than when I first started,” George said. “We used to post on social media and people would say, ‘Man, that looks fun,’ and they would ask us questions about it. I see cross country being a big thing in the future.” 

George continued to say how proud he was to be a part of the class of runners to help boost the popularity of cross country at Newton. 

And, even though George expects even more growth down the road, he’s excited to finish out his career at Newton. 

“This season, I feel like I have to do better in general to end my high school career on a good note,” George said.

George topped his performance on Aug. 24 with a first place finish at the Morgan County home meet with a 17:46.72 final time.