Julian Linebaugh came into his senior year with a plan and so far the plan is right on schedule. The outstanding Dexter cross country runner spent most of 2024 getting ready for his final lap with the Dreadnaughts and he is on pace for what should be a big finish.
“The season is going pretty good,” said Linebaugh, moments after finishing fourth at the competitive SEC Red Division Championship last week at Hudson Mills. “It’s been better than last year.”
And last year was pretty good.
During his junior run, Linebaugh finished 14th at Regionals with a time of 16:50.6 and then cracked the top 100 at the State Finals with a time of 16:26.6. He finished 22nd at the Meet of Champions with a PR time of 16:21.9.
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As a sophomore, Linebaugh ran a PR time of 17:23.6 at the D-1 Regional at Brighton and placed 33rd overall. He went 17:50.6 at the D-1 State Finals at MIS and then finished 49th at the Michigan Meet of Champions with a time of 17:45.5.
Linebaugh said he spent the off-season getting ready to improve on those numbers.
“During the off-season, I start out running slow,” he says, taking us inside his workout regime. “The first three weeks I run slow for about an hour every day. And then I start running really hard every other day with easy running days in between. Sundays are usually my day off during the week of training.”
But getting ready for a high school cross country season – especially when you have already set the bar pretty high – requires more than just running.
“I try to get nine hours of sleep every night,” Linebaugh says. “I also do a lot of stretching every day. And try to eat right. I eat a lot of carbs, vitamins and magnesium.”
All of the hard work is paying off.
Linebaugh has five top seven finishes in 2024 including third at the Father Gabriel Richard XC Invitational on Oct. 12 where he had his best time so far with a 15:39.3. He was 18th at the competitive Portage Invitational on Oct. 5 and fifth at the Holly-Duane Raffin Festival of Races on Sept. 14.
The Dreadnaughts will run on Saturday at the D-1 Regionals at Holly as Linebaugh takes aim at his third consecutive trip to the State Finals.
“Two seconds,” he says. “That’s what I need to hit my goal of 15:37.0. Sometimes these smaller races are harder to compete just because the field is so small. I like running in the bigger races with more people.”
When he’s on the course, Linebaugh has an interesting technique to help keep his focus on the job at hand. “I play with my fingers and hold them like I am holding a chip that can’t brake,” he says. “I learned that while running with a team out in Utah.”
And does it work – especially when a guy runs by him.
“Well, I try not to let anyone run by me,” he says with a smile. And that doesn’t happen very often.
His goal this Saturday is to just qualify for States.
“I would like to go top three or four at Regionals,” he said. “And at States my goal is to get that 15:37 and be All-State. I like the MIS course. It’s a fun course with a lot of people and very open which I like.”
Dexter finished in third place at the SEC Championships behind Saline and Pioneer, two teams having outstanding seasons. The Dreadnaughts finished with 73 points and were led by Linebaugh (fourth, 16:10.46), senior Caleb Snyder (sixth, 16;21.71) and sophomore Coen Hill (14th, 16:44.0).
The Dreadnaughts also finished third at the Father Gabriel Richard Invitational on Oct. 12, finishing with 84 points behind only Brighton and Plymouth – and ahead of Pioneer.
“We aren’t doing as good as we did last year as a team but we are still doing well and having a good season,” he says. “We should qualify to States as a team, that’s the goal.”
Linebaugh wants to run in college but his future is “to be determined.”
“I am going on a visit to Ferris State so I’m looking forward to that,” he says.
But right now his focus is on his fingers and dropping 2 more seconds.
