Scott City's Shemonia is the Southeast Missourian Runner of the Year

It would be easy to mistake Brandon Shemonia for an average teenager.

He stands about 5 foot 8 with floppy blond hair. He's a well-spoken, polite kid.

But any high school cross country runner who sees Shemonia as average doesn't stand a chance.

The Scott City junior finished second at the Class 2 state cross country meet for the second consecutive year after dominating many of his races this season. The state meet was one of only two races he competed in during the season that he didn't win, which is why he's the Southeast Missourian cross country runner of the year.

"I guess it's his dedication is what it is," Scott City coach Travis Schiwitz said about the key to Shemonia's success. "During this year, I know he ran more during the summer. He put in nearly 500 miles this summer. Then during the regular season, like in practice and everything, we just pushed. We don't sit back on anything except our easy long runs. Everything is pushed as hard as we can go and that way we get used to doing that."

Shemonia never needed 17 minutes to complete a race. He already had crossed the finish line. But the amount of work needed to get off the course in less than 17 minutes set him apart.

"It's a lot of practice," he said. "We would stay every day after school until 5 or 5:30 just running, putting the extra time in. Going to the weight room, doing ab workouts. It's constant. You've got to make sure you eat right during school, not put any bad food in you for the races."

That bad food includes his favorite, doughnuts.

"I'm a big doughnut guy," he said. "I don't eat too many of those at all during the season. I've got to make sure I stay at my running weight."

His preparation for a Saturday race begins Thursday.

"I try to make sure I get sleep then for the next two days just to be rested," he said. "I make sure to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated."

Shemonia said he averaged about 36 miles per week during the summer to prepare for his junior year. He plans to up that average this summer.

"This summer I'm going to be putting close to 55, 50 miles a week in to get ready for cross country," he said. "That way I can come in in good shape and run some fast times.

"Usually in the summer we'll get up at 5:30 or 6 in the morning and run. If it's not too hot out, we'll wait until about 7 o'clock at night."

The winning routine

There's even plenty of preparation on race day for those 16-plus minutes of competition. Shemonia admits it takes him a while to get warmed up so he's usually the first of his teammates to begin preparing for a race.

"We always walk the course to start out just to find out where everything's at," he said. "Find the hills. Find where you can make your move on the course. About 45 minutes before the race starts, I'll get my team together and we'll go jog for about 15 minutes. Then our coach has us do about 60-yard sprints where you slowly pick it up. About that time, I'm doing my stretching and pumping myself up to get ready."

Shemonia said he doesn't even feel his best right before a race, which isn't good news to his competition.

"At my point where my legs feel like I've already run a race, to me, I'm warmed up," he said. "If I could run the race first then run it again, I'd probably do better. That's how my legs react to it."

Shemonia enters every race with a plan, but that strategy easily can get thrown out the window. Shemonia doesn't try to outfox the other runners, but he admits he will try to stay with someone if they start fast.

"Usually they mess with me," he said about the competition. "When I see someone take out too fast, I always go with them. I don't know why. I'll totally take out my race plan and go with them. And we'll usually come through the mile too fast, but it makes it fun."

Central senior Eric Schott joined Shemonia on many of his runs over the summer. He's at a loss to explain his buddy's ability to run away from the competition.

"In cross country, it was almost every race, it seemed like there was a 12-second difference where he would be in front of me," Schott said.

Shemonia continues to run this winter in preparation for the spring track season. He said his longest run so far was about 13 miles. There will be plenty of motivation once his senior season of cross country rolls around.

"I'm focused on the state championship," he said. "It's always in the back of my mind. But another big barrier for me would be to break 16 [minutes]. I think about that because I ran 16-flat this year and got close. That's a big barrier in cross country for me to break."

Schiwitz said he knows the desire to win a state title will keep Shemonia working hard.

"Him not having a state title, we're going to use that as a little bit of motivation and just learn from the mistakes that we made this past year," Schiwitz said.