He gave tennis a try. “It was fun, but I just wasn’t any good.”
Luckily, he managed to find a sport that suits him just fine.
 Wahpeton senior Justin Keller strides to the finish line Aug. 31 at the Don Haugen Memorial Invitational cross country meet in Breckenridge. Keller has come into his own this year with a win at the Haugen Memorial and a 16th place finish at the regional meet, netting him all-conference honors. Daily News file photo. Advertisement |
“Running runs in his family. His dad runs, he runs, his dog runs,” Christopher said.
“I did a 5K in Alaska when my family was on vacation,” Keller said. “My dad ran the Fargo Marathon this year.”
The core of training for a big race includes running, running and more running to prepare running a full 5K (approximately 3.1 miles).
Cross country season runs from the first week in August up to the state meet in late October. As the season wears on, so does the weather, at least on most runners.
“I think it gets easier because I like to run in colder weather,” Keller said. “I don’t like to sweat that much.”
Although cross country as well as track are commonly viewed as individualized sports, there is definitely a team element to be considered. “It’s mainly individual,” Keller said, “but there are team scores. They take the top five runners and add their placings together to get the total sweepstakes points.”
Christopher explained the element of teamwork in preparing for and running a race.
“Take Jamestown as an example,” she said. “They are definitely a good team. It’s a running town. They’re always gonna be a good team because in Jamestown, it’s not cool to be out for the football team. It’s cool to be out for the cross country team. They’ve got the numbers. We are definitely hurt by our numbers.
“We have good individuals, but I need four or five guys running up with Justin so he’s always got a running mate training with him because when you train with somebody that’s running side by side with you, it’s just instinct that you wanna stay ahead of that person. They’re always pushing each other.”
In that way, Keller has boosted the team’s performance.
“Other team members are chasing him and he doesn’t want them to beat him and they want to beat him so now everybody’s got to get better. He could settle, but then Josh (Muehler) and Chase (Julson) are gonna beat him. There’s no hard feelings. It’s just training. It’s good and it helps everybody.” Christopher said.
Although Keller has been running cross country for five years now, this season found him forging a role as a leader for the Huskies. He is captain of the team and has spent the season moving up in his placings at meets.
Keller started the season with a splash, winning the Don Haugen Invitational hosted by Wahpeton and Breckenridge.
And if taking his home meet wasn’t thrill enough, Keller earned All-Eastern Dakota Conference honors this past weekend with a 16th place finish at the regional meet.
Justin is the son of Joe and Darci Keller. Although he does not plan on continuing a career in competitive running, he has other interests he hopes to develop. Keller's future plans include attending South Dakota State University to major in wildlife biology. He is also an Eagle Scout and nature photographer.
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