At the awards ceremony for the Class AAAAA cross country state championships, Kirubel Erassa shook the hand of each one of his competitors on the podium.

The Grayson runner had just won the individual state title an hour earlier, but his coach was more impressed by the way he handled himself in victory than the blistering time he ran.

“I was like ‘Wow, I couldn’t imagine that six months ago,’” Grayson coach Rob Blaszkiewicz said. “He’s grown a lot. Not only physically, he’s matured into a young man.”

Blaszkiewicz couldn’t have imagined the sportsmanship Erassa showed after an incident at a national meet over the summer.

Erassa competed at Nike Nationals and won his heat in the 3,200-meter race. With about 80 meters left, he passed the leader and started waving his finger in his face and started celebrating before the finish line.

That was enough for Blaszkiewicz. He pulled Erassa out of the 1,600 and 3,200 races and brought him home.

“I told him we’re going home, but that was the turning point,” Blaszkiewicz said.

The disciplinary act gained respect by Erassa towards Blaszkiewicz. He continued to listen to his coach throughout the cross country season. The end result was a state championship. That’s why at the finish line of the state meet the two were overcome with emotion.

“Seeing my coach before I got to the finish line I screamed his name before I finished,” said Erassa, who dedicated the title to Blaszkiewicz. “Because he made me do the low mileage and I listened to him a lot. That’s why I was emotional at the finish line.”

Erassa ran a time of 15 minutes, 9 seconds to claim the Class AAAAA crown. Of the five classifications, it was the fastest time at the state meet.

“It’s hard to put in words what that means to me,” Blaszkiewicz said. “He’s a special kid, like a son to me. That’s why I got emotional at the finish line. It’s hard to put in words honestly. We’ve been through a lot. We’ve had our ups and downs. Since June he’s really bought into what I said. At the same time it’s been a good time, too.”

Not only did Erassa change his bragging attitude, he also toned down his mileage. He was running 100-125 miles a week last year as part of his training. This season he ran about 80 miles a week.

“He was training to be the best high school marathoner in the country,” Blaszkiewicz said.

Instead of the extra miles, Erassa concentrated on more speed workouts like running hills and intervals. The change seemed to help. He won every race he competed in this year, winning by an average of 22 seconds.

“Right now I’m speedy man. I have lot of speed in my legs,” Erassa said. “I’ve been doing a lot of speed workouts and they helped me prepare for 5Ks a lot.”

Erassa won the Early Bird Invitational to start the season, setting a personal record of 14:59. Erassa probably would have had more records this season, but wet conditions at many meets prevented that. He won the Carrollton Invitational, the Gwinnett County title, the Gulf Coast Stampede, the Coach Wood Invitational and the Region 8-AAAAA championship.

“To be undefeated and win every race, but I had to win state, that was the goal,” Erassa said. “Every race is to win, that makes me work hard.”

Erassa has pretty lofty goals for the national cross country circuit and track season. He will race at Foot Locker South next month and wants to qualify for nationals. No Georgian has ever won Foot Locker Nationals.

“I want to go to Foot Locker and win it there,” Erassa said. “I don’t want to lose. I hate to lose.”

He already has track state titles in the 1,600 and 3,200. With his cross country title, that gives him the triple crown of distance running events. He’s easily the most accomplished individual athlete to walk the halls of Grayson and one of the top runners to ever compete in Gwinnett, but Erassa wants more.

“I want to run the two-mile fast, like break 8:50,” said Erassa, who has college interest from Mississippi State, Oklahoma State and Arizona. “Those are my goals. Break 4:05. Those are my goals. I want to go to Nike Nationals and win those too. That’s my goal.”

Those goals may seem far-fetched, but Blaszkiewicz wouldn’t put it past Erassa. After all he never imagined Erassa would be shaking hands with his competitors at the state meet nearly six months ago.

“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime athlete,” Blaszkiewicz said. “He’s the best athlete I’ve ever coached and he will be the best athlete I’ve ever coached 20 years from now. I can say that pretty confidently.”