The transformation of Rio Rico’s Carlos Villarreal into a cross country runner continues daily.

He received more news that reaffirmed that he is on the right track since leaving his competitive basketball days behind after his sophomore year. He’s still raw but still good enough to pick up this year’s Arizona's Gatorade Cross Country Boys Runner of the Year Thursday.

Villareal didn’t start running cross country until his junior season. But he had a former distance runner, Stanford alum Steve Schadler, as his high school coach and teammate Oscar Omaya, the 2013 Division III state cross country champ, to help push Villarreal.

The rapid ascension up Arizona’s courses led Villarreal to the winner’s podium at the Twilight and state meets this school year. The climb to the top will continue at University of Arizona next for Villarreal, who’ll take a 3.5 GPA with him.

Villarreal is just the second small school Arizona runner to earn Gatorade's Cross Country Runner of the Year since 2007.

“Carlos is so new to the sport and so eager to learn,” Schadler told Gatorade. “He learns something new about himself and or running with every race, and his learning curve has been the steepest I’ve ever witnessed. He has a very bright future.”

(Carlos Villarreal)