Collier finishes first Palomar College season at state cross-country meet

After graduating from Bonsall High School in 2019 Max Collier became the first former Bonsall High School cross-country runner to compete in college, and his Palomar College season ended at the state meet.

“It was very fun to continue my cross-country career,” Collier said.

Collier said that being the first former Bonsall High School runner to compete in college makes him a role model for others.

“It feels great to be one of the first,” he said.

Hugh Gerhardt is Palomar College’s men’s cross-country coach.

“We met on campus, and we had a discussion about cross-country. I asked him about cross-country, and I was invited,” Collier said. “I tried out and I made the team, made varsity.”

Collier considers the level of competition to be the biggest transition to the college level.

“It was more rigorous than high school,” he said.

The Bonsall Unified School District gives physical education credit only for actual physical education classes and not for athletics. Collier had to enroll in an actual class to be on Palomar Collage’s cross-country team, and that class was worth three units of credit.

“I thought that was a little bit different,” he said.

The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference championship meet took place Oct. 25, at Morley Field in San Diego. A time of 24 minutes 18.60 seconds on the 4-mile course gave Collier 30th place among the 60 runners.

“I feel I did good,” he said.

The Comets finished fourth at the league meet.

“It was a little bit disappointing not to get third, but it was still a good achievement,” Collier said. “We didn’t get to bring home a trophy or anything, but we did good.”

The Palomar Collage men didn’t bring home any trophies, but the Palomar College women won the league championship.

The Southern California regional championship meet was held Nov. 8 in the Mission Bay area of San Diego.

“That course was an especially hard course,” Collier said.

Collier said that the winding nature of the course made it difficult.

“Despite the difficulty of the course I was able to do very well there,” he said.

Although Palomar College placed 20th as a team, Collier posted a time of 23:12.3 on the 4-mile course. He placed 79th among the 186 individual runners and qualified for the state meet.

“It felt very gratifying,” Collier said. “It felt amazing to find out that I qualified for state.”

Collier’s time was also a personal record.

“I got a PR that race, and it just felt really good that I made it to state. It was a hard race. I gave it my all, and it paid off,” he said.

The state meet, Nov. 23, was at the Woodward Park course in Fresno, which was also 4 miles.

Collier was one of 174 runners, including two who did not finish, and one of two Palomar College harriers. His time of 23:02 was worth 140th place.

“The state meet was a very competitive, very hard race, but it was also a very fun race,” Collier said.

The large field of runners gave Collier opportunities.

“I enjoyed trying to pass people or attempting to keep up with people,” he said.

Collier was initially undecided about running in college.

“I’ve been able to have a lot of fun, and I’ve been able to get better,” he said