Caleb tries to relax as the bus shuttles him and his rowdy teammates to the cross country course. Athletes around him scroll or play Clash Royale but he doesn’t join them. He remains focused on the race ahead.
On October 22, 2025, Caleb Bolles scored 15th place at the cross country district meet in Iowa City, individually qualifying for state.
Bolles has quickly climbed to the top of the boys cross country team since the start of his freshman year. He has put in lots of time and effort to become such an accomplished athlete.
“It takes a lot of time,” Bolles said. “And really, once I started becoming consistent, it started to click: doing the research to know what’s right to do and just keeping consistent and working hard.”
Bolles’ training has varied over time as he has gotten faster.
“It depends, from when I went from 18 flat in the 5k to 10:20 in the two mile, it involved a lot of fast recovery runs and medium work, but also a lot of weight training and athletic training,” Bolles said.
While many people don’t associate the weight room with cross country, there are actually several benefits for runners who weight train.
His dedicated training and experience allowed him to feel prepared for districts. All that was left to do was to loosen up before his race.
“It’s basically just getting rid of the stress before the run on the bus ride, trying to relax and remove all stress, and staying off my phone because that can impact your racing ability,” Bolles said.
While Bolles is ultimately proud of his achievement, he is disappointed that his teammates won’t get to race with him.
“It was kind of bittersweet,” Bolles said. “The whole team has worked really, really hard, and they deserve it, too. So in the moment, at least, it didn’t feel that cool or impressive.”
Bolles is not only a talented cross country runner but also has ambitious goals for track season.
“My next goal for this winter is to train hard, get a lot faster, and hopefully qualify for state in track,” Bolles said. “I think I have a chance if I work hard.”
