* Kirk Walsh and Dustin Allen are the MileSplit50 co-Coaches of the Year
Photo Credit: Submitted
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By Cory Mull - MileSplit
Few teams were more dominant than the Cuthbertson High School girls in 2023.
The North Carolina program rolled through competition this spring, capturing its seventh straight NCHSAA Class 4A state title on May 20, its Class 4A Midwest Regional on May 13 and its Southern Carolina Conference Championship on May 3, often doing so with a barrage of points -- 134 at the Midwest Regional and 194 at Conference.
And yet, Cuthbertson wouldn't be where it is today were it not for its ambitions.
A team of 34 athletes -- 19 of them being girls -- traveled 500 miles north to Philadelphia in June to finish out their outdoor seasons at the national championships.
The Cavaliers walked away with two more national titles, claiming four across the total of the 2023 calendar year.
For that success alone, along with the culture and community Cuthbertson has built over the last several years, we are naming Dustin Allen and Kirk Walsh as our MileSplit50 co-National Coaches of the Year for 2023.
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Allen, 34, the head coach of the program for the past eight years, and Walsh, 52, the team's head cross country and lead distance coach over the track season, were a tandem that allowed Cuthbertson to thrive.
"To watch them grow and just incrementally get stronger over time and see it culminate in the way it did this year, (that's impressive)," Walsh said.
"It's been a whirlwind," Allen said.
Allen oversees the program of 225 athletes -- half of which is the girls team -- while Walsh has focused on the distance corps, which in recent years has blossomed into a national powerhouse.
The foursome of Charlotte Bell, Stella Kermes, Justine Preisano and Alyssa Preisano set an indoor national record in the 4x800 in March and captured a total of four national titles over 2023 alone, including two to end the outdoor season.
But Cuthbertson wouldn't have won its state meet if not for its jumpers, too. Senior Maya Studney was second in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump at state, while junior Isabelle Liu was fifth in the long jump and third in the triple.
Cuthbertson also had state qualifiers in the 300mH, 4x100, 4x200, 4x400, pole vault and shot put.
Of the 75 points the team scored, 50 came from the distance corps, with Charlotte Bell notching state titles in the 800m and 1,600m, while Kermes was third and second in those races and Justine Preisano was fourth in the 800m. The team also brought home a 4x800 state title in 9:01.84 and set a state record of 8:48.16 in the 4x800 at NBNO.
Walsh, who's coached at every level at Cuthbertson -- middle school to high school -- began coaching the unit when they were just middle schoolers. He's seen the progress each of his athletes have made over that stretch, much of it significant.
"It's been really cool to watch them grow up. That's one of the unique things of having worked at the middle school level," he said. "With Stella and Charlotte, I've coached them since they were 11."
Walsh, of course, is leaving. This was not a secret. He announced his impending departure from the program in April, which will give Cuthbertson enough time to hire his replacement. The 52-year-old father of three worked outside the school district, having run his own consulting firm for 25 years.
"Now I am at the point where I am going to figure out what the third act of my life is going to be," he said.
Cuthbertson surely will miss the man that helped engineer this distance program into the upper echelons of distance running in track and field.
Allen, on the other side, saw this team win its seventh straight state title, furthering its blueprint. And that's just outdoors -- the program has had similar success indoors, too.
When Allen took over, he said, there were barely 20 athletes who competed in track at the school. But in the time since, as Allen has helped shape the program into a "year round focus," more and more athletes have leaned into the vision.
A total of 14 athletes signed with Division I universities this season, he said. Many more will follow next year. And no athlete exemplified the team's ethos this year more than Alyssa Preisano, he said.
"She got hurt before our regional meet, was cleared to run but couldn't practice. As a senior, she did everything she could to be out there, just to give herself a chance to compete, to do what she could. And for that team to win a national championship and for her to help them, that's amazing. Most people don't even know her story."
Kirk Walsh will remember his last day the most.
He remembers the Cuthbertson girls being tired. It was the fourth and final day at New Balance Nationals Outdoor and the team was 500-plus miles away from home, stationed in Philadelphia for one last day.
They had run the four-by-one-mile on Thursday and won, capturing their third national title in a year. They followed in the 4x800 the next day and lost an agonizing race to Union Catholic, agonizing because the team had beaten Union Catholic in March and had set a national record in the process.
That Saturday, three days into the meet, three of the team's top girls ran the championship mile. Stella Kermes finished ninth overall.
"You could tell at the end of that, the night went late, they were out of gas," Walsh said.
There was little else to prove. Cuthbertson had rolled through the year, had won all of its meets, had won state meets over the last seven years. Walsh was leaving. The team had done enough.
And then Charlotte Bell called Walsh late that night.
"This may surprise you," she told him, "but we want to run the DMR."
Cuthbertson wasn't even entered in the distance medley relay. In fact, three of the four were instead entered in the 800m.
But none of them wanted to finish out their careers individually. Walsh said OK, and then he started going to work, eventually finessing Cuthbertson into the championship final on Sunday with the help of New Balance ... at the last minute.
Cuthbertson ran its last race with fire, purpose and energy, driving forward against the nation's top DMR team, Saratoga Springs, despite the fact that the New York program were the favorites.
Each and every leg of the relay played their part. The Cavaliers won in 11:33.18, but it seemed bigger than that, as if this would live on.
The performance was the 10th-best time in history, a state record in North Carolina and a capstone moment for this team with Walsh, who was seeing it out with them, and Allen, who was watching on.
Related Links:
Shawnti Jackson wasn't just good in 2023, she was legendary
The final MileSplit50 girls list of 2023