When Skyler Durham was named the new coach of the Wellsville-Middletown cross country team this fall, he was thrilled to take over a program that enjoyed numerous accolades during its history, including state trophies in the boys and girls division in 2021 and 2002, respectively.

“I’m loving it,” Durham said. “It’s been great so far. Everybody has been great. The community has been supportive. The families of the cross country team have been super supportive. The kids have been working hard.”

After coaching cross country and track at Montgomery County Middle School for several years, Durham went Highway 19 north to replace John Slovensky, who retired as Tigers’ coach after the 2024-2025 school year.

As the new Tigers’ coach, Durham is helping the program prepare for the future. He has just four boys on his team, all of them are freshmen.
There are no girls on the high school squad and there are eight runners on the junior high team.

“It’s going to take time for me to build a name and for the kids to get comfortable,” Durham said. “I had several kids who came up and talked about wanting to run next year and do these things. I’m excited for the future. It’s going to take a minute to build. Once we get there, we’ll get there.”

Durham’s teams competed in the Wellsville-Middletown Invitational on Sept. 22, held at the W-M campus. He was pleased with his runners’ efforts after competing in a meet at Fulton just two days before.

“There was a lot of fatigue, but they did a really good job and I’m proud of them,” Durham said.

In the high school race, Silas Jones was the Tigers’ top finisher, placing 25th with a 25:08. He was also the top finisher in the Fulton, Mexico and Van-Far meets this season. He placed 11th with a 25:53 in the junior varsity division of the season-opening Mexico Invitational on Aug. 29.

“He’s really pushing to get a good time so he can get into districts,” Durham said. “He wants to go under 25 and he’s really close.”

The other runners on the high school team are Charles Freie, Lucas Spiers and Zeke Bradley.

“They put in really good work,” Durham said. “I’m proud of what they have done so far. They’re going to have really good careers. I can see that from now. I think they have really bright futures.”

Durham said the four freshmen are getting adjusted to high school cross country, which has meets with a distance of 3.1 miles.

“With the distance change, it’s hard at first,” the new W-M coach said. “They’re getting to it. Working with four freshmen and a new coach is actually super beneficial because we can have a foundation and build, so it’s going really good so far.”

The W-M junior high team has been getting strong performances from seventh-grader Gatlin Null and eighth-grader Lily Carlisle.

Gatlin placed 50th with a 12:08 at the W-M meet.

“He’s been our front runner for middle school,” Durham said. “He’s been doing a fantastic job. He really wants to chase down some times and chase down some runners in front of them in every race. I can’t complain there.”

Lily finished 27th with a 12:51 in the W-M meet. She placed 19th with a 14:03 at the Van-Far meet, which was on Sept. 8.

“Lily is a speedster,” Durham said. “She has good speed and good stamina. We’ll get a little more conditioning in her. She’s a phenomenal runner.”

Durham said he was ecstatic with the turnout of the W-M Invitational. There were 79 boys and 51 girls in the middle school race and 40 boys and 19 girls in the high school race.

“For me, that’s a great sign that this sport is growing and thriving,” Durham said. “People are getting involved in it. For the future of cross country (as well as) cross country in Wellsville, there’s nowhere to go but up.”

The high school team’s next meet is the Brian T. Simpson Invitational on Oct. 11 at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.

The junior high team returned to action on Oct. 1, when it competed at Bowling Green.