Seymour senior glad he joined track and field, cross-country teams

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During his sophomore year, Markus Catterton said he felt like he needed to get in better physical shape.

He decided to join the track and field team and last fall he ran cross-country at Seymour.

“I had a few friends in PE (physical education) and we would run together,” Catterton said. “Eventually they suggested we join the track team, and I had a couple other friends that were joining that year. If anything else, I figured I would get to spend time with them.”

This spring he has concentrated on the 800 and mile after also running the 3,200 as a junior.

“My favorite is the mile,” Catterton said. “It was difficult to learn. It took me a while. After a while I learned to plan to run only three laps because by the time you finish your third lap you’re not feeling so tired, and you’re used to moving fast and you still have enough energy to finish strong on that fourth lap.”

He said he didn’t have as good a season as he was hoping for and had to settle for a 6:03. His career best time was 5:49.

Catterton is glad he ran cross-country last fall.

“I did cross-country because I was tired of running in the spring, then not having regular exercise to tide me over, because then I had to make up progress that I lost during the fall and winter,” Catterton said. “I wasn’t great, but I made a lot of personnel progress. “

He planned out his races.

“I would try to find someone one my team if I could that I knew that was in the same range that I was as far as running capability,” Catterton said. “ I would try to stick with them and not lose any progress. The first mile, mile-and-one-half I kind of held back a little bit.”

He said runners need to work hard in practice every day.

“I think it’s easy to lose progress in your running form and capabilities just by not running for a couple days. It’s easy to lose that rhythm,” Catterton said.

He talked about maintaining a positive outlook.

“I think it’s very important, just as important if not more than the actual physical part of running or anything,” Catterton said. “ That’s what practice does for you. It helps you kind of learn your limits and learn how to push past them in situations where you need to.”

Catterton has enjoyed attending SHS.

“I’m going to remember mostly the people and that hard work mentality that we have in our sports teams,” he said. “It’s different in other schools in the sense that hard work is encouraged more in our community. It’s part of the culture. Senior year has gone by pretty fast.”

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Name: Markus Catterton

High school: Seymour

Parents: Jade Mankiller, Todd Catterton

Sibling: Catherine

Sports: track and field 3 years, cross-country 1 year

Plans after high school: attend IUPUC

Favorite food: Chinese

Favorite TV show: Bojack Horseman

Favorite musician: Joji

Favorite movie: The Jungle Book

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