The high school track and field regular season is winding down.

In fact, next Friday, April 10, marks the last regular-season date.

But last month (March 12-15), four members of the Buchholz boys track and field team earned All American times during the historic Armory in New York City for the Nike Indoor National Championships.

The same four members of the team (junior Quinn Meyer, senior Davis Garrett, senior Samuel Freas and sophomore Andrew Sides) ran three relays on three consecutive days.

Due to Nike’s competition rules, the foursome had to run under a club team alias.

“We are called ‘Dreamville’ after a Tom Petty song about growing up in Gainesville,” said Buchholz cross country coach Patrick Douma, who led the Bobcats to their second straight state title this past fall.

Douma, who was the 2024-25 NFHS Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year as well as the Florida Dairy Farmers Class 4A Coach of the Year, also coaches four of the 18 events for the Buchholz track program.

“I have to do a better job of getting more kids from within the school to give distance running a try,” he said. “I also am actively seeking a boys assistant distance coach for cross-country. Executing here, numbers and coaching assistance, is our only way forward.”

On Friday the 13th, the foursome ran the 4 x mile relay in 17 minutes, 32 seconds, which was second place, finishing behind McCallie of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The following day, they ran the distance medley relay and finished fourth in a time of 10:08, which was the eighth-fastest time in the nation during the indoor season.

On Sunday, they were in the 4x800m relay and finished sixth place with a time of 7:52.

This is the fourth straight year that Buchholz has sent a team to the Nike Indoor Nationals. In 2024, they were the top team by score with 28 points.

“It reiterates and reinforces my commitment to developing a nationally competitive distance program at Buchholz,” Douma said. “That commitment is a work in progress. We have room to grow.”

Nike classifies the top eight teams as All American, so they were All-American three times.

The other national-caliber teams they competed against from the southeast included Bullis (Maryland), Christ (North Carolina), IMG and Belen Jesuit (Miami).

“All have either a sixth to eighth grade program and/or recruitment reach that is nationwide, as well as multiple coaches working together for their boys distance squad,” Douma said. “We compete against them largely with random ninth graders that just happen to join cross country. Annually, if you look at our ninth-grade runners, they are so far behind the ninth graders of our competitors in times, development, and number of athletes competing on those squads.”

Douma said they consistently “catch up to our cohort group” three years later.

“We excel in developing talent,” he said. “Pointedly, we need more runners in our development pool to step up.”

The runners included Garrett, 1200-meter leg, handing off to Meyer, 400-meter leg, handing off to Sides in the 800-meter leg, handing off to Freas in the 1600-meter anchor leg.

Now the four Bobcats turn their attention to the outdoor season at Buchholz, which finished seventh in Class 4A at the FHSAA Track & Field state championships at the University of North Florida last May.

“It’s not possible to be national caliber in distance without taking advantage of indoor track,” Douma said.

Freas, who was a member of the 2025 Bosshardt Realty All Area big school boys track and field team (3A-4A), placed third (9:25.18) in the 3200 last year.

He will be running at the University of North Florida next season, along with his cross country teammate Demetrie Meyers, who is not on the track team this spring.

Garrett, who will be running for the Naval Academy, finished third in the 1600 meters at the state meet with a time of 4:17.61.

“Garrett, Freas, Meyers, and senior Seamus Moran are key returners for our distance runners,” said Buchholz track and field head coach James West. “That’s an outstanding group of guys with four cross country titles.”

This is West’s second year coaching track at Buchholz, and his first year as head coach.

“From the sprinter side of the house, we’re building with a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “We only have two seniors returning – Chris Johnson (200, 400) and Caleb Young Jr. (110 hurdles, 400 hurdles).”

West said that competing for a state title in track and field “is no easy task.”

“It will take a full team effort,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got a strong distance group and we’re building with our underclassmen on the sprinter side of the house and really trying hard to get our field event guys trained. Coach Nassif is doing an outstanding job with the pole vaulters, Coach McDonough is working with our throwers, and Coach Boco is our long jump/triple jump coach. We’re building brick-by-brick to try to get things moving in that direction.”

The FHSAA district meets will be held Tuesday-Saturday, April 14-18 and Monday-Saturday, April 20-25, with the Bobcats competing on April 18, followed by the Region 1 meet on May 2.

The Class 4A Track & Field State Championships are Saturday, May 9, at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida.

“I know that no other 4A teams have come close to our output in the 800m, 1600m, 3200m, and 4X800m events at the state meet since 2022,” Douma said.