When Caleb Tenney laces up his running shoes, he carries more than speed and stamina onto the course. He carries the values that shaped him on and off it. Behind his smooth stride and calm focus are thousands of miles run in solitude, hours of careful training, and a quiet determination that have carried him to the top of Maryland high school cross country.
Tenney, a 2025 graduate of St. Vincent Pallotti High School in Laurel, was named the Gatorade Maryland Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. The award honors the state’s top high school athletes for their athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character, according to Gatorade.
Tenney is the first Gatorade Maryland Boys Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from St. Vincent Pallotti High School.
He chose to direct the $1,000 grant that comes with the award to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) sports program, where his love of running first took root.
“It just made me really happy for him to see him honored with such a significant award,” said his father and coach, David Tenney, who is also the assistant principal for academics at St. Vincent Pallotti. “I see the discipline it takes as he manages his training, his rest, his eating, his sleep, and how he balances it all with his academics and other activities.”
Caleb capped his senior season with a meet-record win at the Maryland Private School State Championships Large School Division, finishing in 15:41.3, more than seven seconds ahead of the next runner. He also claimed the Maryland Independent Athletic Association Class C Conference Championship by nearly two minutes and placed 49th at the Nike Cross Southeast Regional Championships.
He began CYO cross country as a kindergartener at St. Mary of the Mills Catholic School in Laurel, which is also his home parish.
“My experience with CYO was that everyone I competed against and my teammates were generally nice people,” Caleb said. “CYO taught me sportsmanship. After races, everyone would shake hands and say ‘good job.’ The environment at practice taught me that working hard together and having fun was important. We prayed before races, and that is something that stuck with me. I still pray with my teammates before races.”
Caleb credits CYO with instilling lessons that have lasted well beyond childhood. “It taught me sportsmanship and the value of having faith, in the training and in God, to pull you through when training gets hard,” he said.
David Tenney said his son’s passion for running started early. “I’m a distance runner, and Caleb and his siblings rode along in the jogging stroller from the time they were babies,” he said. “Once he was old enough, he and his sister ran beside me while I pushed their younger siblings. He always loved running.”
By fourth and fifth grade, Caleb was excelling in CYO meets. “He competed against a special group of boys from several teams who were all exceptionally fast for their age,” David Tenney said. “They pushed each other to run times that matched or beat older age groups, and that competition really lit a fire in him.”
Even with talent and drive, the sport taught him humility. “Despite being so fast, he usually wouldn’t finish first,” David Tenney said. “He had to learn how to face defeat and disappointment graciously.” He added that CYO fostered a sense of healthy competition. “Those boys that he ran against in CYO were always friendly with one another despite their fierce competition on the course. That’s something Caleb carried with him. Throughout high school, he always seemed to make friends with his competitors.”
During his time at St. Vincent Pallotti, Caleb balanced academics, athletics and community service. He played in the school drumline, worked as a lifeguard at Montpelier Community Association Pool, and served as a peer tutor, retreat leader and youth group volunteer. He graduated with a 4.47 weighted GPA and will attend Johns Hopkins University this fall, where he will study computer engineering and compete in cross country and track.
“My dream job is to become a hardware designer,” Caleb said. “Computer engineering covers both software and hardware, but I’m more interested in hardware. I’m still deciding on my focus area, but I know I want to get into hardware design.”
As he looks ahead to college, Caleb carries the lessons of CYO with him. Running and faith, he said, give him an outlet. “For me, easy runs are the best way to relax and clear my head. Running is such a gift in that way,” he said.
David Tenney said Catholic youth sports offered their family more than just competition. “CYO cross country was a great sport for our family,” he said. “Distance running teaches so many important life lessons. Also, the fact that cross country is co-ed and all four of our kids could run on the same team as they grew up let our family spend more time together rather than always being split in different directions. Most importantly, it allowed faith to be integrated into their athletics and gave us an avenue to bond with other families in our parish and school.”
For Caleb, those lessons came full circle during his freshman year of high school when St. Vincent Pallotti hosted a CYO meet. “I got to ‘rabbit’ one of the races I used to run in,” he said. “It felt like everything was coming full circle. There is nothing quite like being chased by 100 middle school boys trying their best to catch you.”
He also offered advice for younger track and field athletes. “Stick with it, even when it feels hard at first,” he said. “Running gets easier the more you do it. Keep working, have fun, and find what you love about the sport.”
With his award, his donation and a new chapter ahead, Caleb carries that circle of faith, family and running with him into the future.
“Being both his coach and his dad, I see what he puts into his running every day,” David Tenney said. “He makes it look easy, but it’s not. I’ve seen him run thousands of miles alone, study the science of training, and handle losses and injuries with patience and grace. Caleb is quiet and humble, so it’s nice to see him recognized because he often flies under the radar.”
