The tougher the cross country race, the better Titan’s Castleberry is, coach says

A year ago, Poway’s Cooper Castleberry and Rancho Bernardo’s Camden Luecht had an interesting ‘rivalry.’

They were two of the section’s top runners and practically each week they would go head-to-head to see who was best. Sometimes Luecht won, sometimes Castleberry.

In the state championships, Castleberry placed 11th and Luecht was two places back in 13th, just four seconds behind.

Luecht is now a freshman at UC Santa Barbara and Castleberry not only is considered the section’s top Division 1 returnee after winning Division 1 a year ago, he’s a potential top five finisher at state.

“I miss him,” admitted Castleberry who has taken a somewhat different approach to this season than a year ago. “Having him to race against was useful for me and him. We were so close, and it would go back and forth, so you never knew going in who was going to win, it was anyone’s race.

“It’s a different year and I knew I’d have to adjust without Camden but then, up steps (Mt. Carmel’s) Jaxon Northcutt. It’s not exactly like Camden, but it’s good to have someone to push me. And like Camden, we’re both in the same league (Palomar) so I can really look forward to racing him in the cluster meets.”

Northcutt has made dramatic improvement and some would say he’s ahead of Castleberry right now. The Titan senior wouldn’t argue even though his coach, Ronnie Harris, says he’s way ahead of where he was in 2024.

“I had a lot of meets at the end of track and went to some camps, so got a late finish, took my two-week break and started the season later than a year ago,” said Castleberry. “I’m OK with that. I’m actually in better shape right now and my team is really helping me.

“I’m an ego runner, so usually even on slow days in practice I want to win and sometimes I run too hard. I don’t take advantage of the slow days. But this year the team is so close together and they remind me that there’s a reason it’s a slow day.

“It turns out, if I don’t go too hard, I’m helping them and they’re helping me, which is good because we want another shot at state as a team.”

The Titans were the section’s No. 1 ranked boys team in the most recent coaches’ poll and are looking to greatly improve on a 16th place finish at state a year ago.

Castleberry finished 11th overall — one spot out of making the victory stand — and he’s still kicking himself.

“There was a big group up front in a tactical race and everyone still had a chance to win, which is rare,” he said. “Right at the finish, one of the guys (San Clemente sophomore Matthew Dos Santos) passed me and I didn’t have enough time to react. I never heard him coming and if I had, I know I had enough left to beat him.”

Castleberry’s time of 15:21.1 was just a tenth of a second behind Dos Santos.

Harris is confident Castleberry will take advantage of his slower start to finish strong with a gantlet at the end of the season that includes the section meet, either Brooks Regionals or Nike Nationals and then the Brooks National Championships (formerly Foot Locker) in San Diego.

“He’s a fitness fanatic and he’s in great shape,” said Harris. “The next two weeks we’ll push the distance. That should put him ahead of last year by the Mt. SAC Invitational. That’s where we’ll see where he stands.

“The thing about Cooper is the tougher the race, the better he is. I think he likes to suffer and he’s not scared of anything. He’s about five seconds a mile ahead of where he was a year ago and if you put that time in last year’s results, he’d be right near the top.

“Last year, he had Camden and this year he has Jaxon, but the difference is Jaxon will be in Division 2 for the section and state meets, but having run against Jaxon all those times will make it easier for Cooper at the end of the season.”

Mind you, four of the runners who beat him a year ago at state will return, including champion Conor Lott of Clovis North.

He still has San Diego challengers like Del Norte’s Cameron  Yarbrough, who was third in the section behind Castleberry and Luecht.

The difference between Castleberry and Luecht was just 1.2 seconds. It figured.