Press Box Player of the Week: Aiden Cripe

Aiden Cripe, a senior at Coloma High School, and a member of the Coloma Comet men’s cross-country team this fall, is the Tri-City Record Press Box Player of the Week for Nov. 2, 2023.

Aiden was nominated for the honor by his athletic director, Wendy Goodline. He is deserving of this honor because he had the best all-around season of his high school running career end recently, finishing just a couple spots shy of making it to state for the third time in four years. At the regional meet, which was held on Saturday, Oct. 28, at Portage West Middle School, he finished with a time of 17:47, which placed him 17th overall, two positions away from state qualifier status. His time was just thirteen seconds shy of his career-best personal record, 17:34, which he set at the second conference jamboree of the season in September 2023.

This season, Aiden competed in all thirteen races for the Comets, and was consistently among the top finishers for the team. After he started the year with a lone finish over the twenty-minute mark, his times fell. In the remaining twelve meets, he finished with consistent times in the eighteen and nineteen-minute range, including a stretch of four events late in the year where his finishing time deviated by just thirteen seconds. Talk about a run of consistency!

Aiden is a four-year cross-country runner for Coloma, who saw improvements in his results each year he competed on the local trails. During his freshman campaign, he dropped his time by six minutes, and followed that up with five-minute improvements, from start-to-finish, during his sophomore and junior seasons. In addition to his individual results, he was a member of two teams that qualified for the state meet in back-to-back years, 2020 and 2021, including as a scoring runner during that first finals appearance.

In addition to cross-country, Aiden also competes on the basketball court in the winter and participates in track and field in the spring. He is a solid middle-distance to distance runner, competing specifically in the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter runs. In the classroom, he also takes the role of ‘student-athlete’ seriously, as he currently carries a 3.24 GPA.

Congratulations on this great honor, Aiden! We congratulate you on your achievements during the cross-country season and wish you the best of luck in the remainder of your senior year!