Alex Watty photo _ Alex Watty sprints to the finish line during a recent indoor track event.
By Marty Gordon
Alex Watty is one of five participants from Christiansburg High School that recently won a national relay event in North Carolina. The group will be one of eight team that compete in a national competition next month in New York City.
Saturday, Watty announced plans to continue his track career at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia.
He chose the school because it felt like a home away from home.
“I already know a couple of my teammates, and I know someone there and he’s up there killing it right now (on the track). My gut instinct just told me this is where I wanted to go for the next couple years,” he said.
Concord is a member of the Mountain East Athletic Conference and is a NCAA Division II school.
Mike Cox is starting his 19th season as the head coach of the both the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams at Concord.
One of the top coaches in the region, Cox is a seven-time West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Additionally, Cox has been awarded Mountain East Conference Coach of the Year five times to bring his career total to 12. In the fall of 2016, Cox earned his highest coaching honor to date as he was voted by his peers as the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association Atlantic Regional Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year for guiding the team to an appearance at the NCAA Division II Championship Meet after finishing fourth at the regional meet. It was the first time in school and conference history that a team qualified for the national championship meet.
Prior to entering collegiate coaching Cox attended Virginia Tech, where he qualified for the USA Junior National cross country team as a freshman and competed internationally in Budapest, Hungary. At Virginia Tech, he was a member of seven conference championship teams. Individually, Cox was a three-time all-conference runner, a two-time Atlantic 10 10,000-meter run outdoor champion and an indoor 5,000-meter run conference champion.
Watty plans to major in sports management with his goals remaining high for his final outdoor season at CHS>
“My goals for this track season are to win a couple of state titles in the 4×8, be in contention for one in the 400 outdoors, and run fast at nationals with the relays. My goals for Concord are to contribute freshman year and continue to do so throughout the years I’m there,” he said.
Watty will be running both cross country and track and field at Concord and expects to run the 400 and 800 meters at the school.
His long-term goal is to become an athletic director at a major college or university after college