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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

Dempsey Baldini decided to start running in sixth grade at Clemmons Middle School with the encouragement of her friends.
Flash forward just a couple of years later, it didn’t really enter her mind to start competing in cross-country and track and field at West Forsyth.
But that’s all changed now. Baldini, just a junior, is one of the best runners at West Forsyth.
“At the start, not necessarily (thinking about running in high school), but as I ran more, definitely,” she said. “(I) began to actually enjoy it, and (it) was something I liked to do.”
Coach Nathan Newsome of West Forsyth, who always has his ear to the ground, didn’t really know much about Baldini until just before she started high school.
“Freshman year, she just started coming to summer workouts, and her and my daughter (Hope) were good buddies,” Newsome said. “So, I got to know who she was just because, you know, for that as well. So, I didn’t know her from middle school, just for when she showed up for practice.”
Immediately, Newsome knew that Baldini had potential.
“She was pretty good as soon as she showed up,” he said. “So, yeah, you got a feeling she was probably going to be a contributor, you know. She’s a real mild-mannered, easy-going. Everybody likes Dempsey.”
That potential, Newsome knew, had the possibility of being a diamond in the rough.
“You could tell she took to the training. A lot of times in middle school, they don’t get a whole lot of effective training. And her mileage increased. She was around some other kids. There was a pretty decent little group of incoming freshmen. And yeah, you could tell she took to it pretty quick and you saw there was some good potential.”
Also, because Baldini is a relative novice to both cross-country and track and field, she is still learning how to run.”
“You know how to control your own body, like you know yourself,” she said. “I’ve definitely gotten faster and learned so much more about running and so much more about myself, like how I can improve.
Despite her prowess on the cross-country team for the Titans, she likes competing on the track-and-field team even more, where she runs the 800-meter, the mile run, and some relays.
“I definitely enjoy the middle distances more than the cross-country, the longer stuff,” Baldini said. “I think it’s more fun to go faster, and I personally think that I’m better with the middle distance than the longer distance.”
She added that she’s not a good chaser.
“I will always take out the first lap of any race way too fast for the first mile,” Baldini said.
Baldini and Newsome have frequent conversations about better running strategies for her.
“We talk about this all the time – trying to get better at pacing,” Baldini said. “(He tells me) to just go out slower and control yourself and save some in your tank so you can finish harder.”
Newsome fully acknowledges that he talks to Baldini about not going out too fast but with one caveat.
“It depends. You know, her story is a little bit more convoluted because, she as a freshman, she improved a lot there at the end. As a sophomore, when she started the season, her training looked great. She had a heck of a summer, and I was like, ‘Oh, man. This could be, she might really take off.’
“And then she got sick, and she stayed sick; I swear it felt like she was sick most of the year. And I think maybe she was maybe like, ‘Hey, I was getting good. I was getting better.’ And I even told her, I was like, ‘You’re going to be a really good runner for us. Don’t have imposter syndrome. Don’t feel like I shouldn’t be up here.”
Baldini said she basically had a cold that she couldn’t shake last year as a sophomore on the cross-country team for the Titans.
“I got sick in like September,” she said. “And I kind of struggled with that all the way til states in November.”
Being sick played mind games with her.
“Very frustrating because when you like don’t race how you want to race, like everyone is improving,” Baldini said. “It’s just like so tough on yourself. It was hard, like just kind of like push through it and like clear your mind and just like focus on a new race. Like, try to ignore the bad races you had.”
She persevered last year and competed in the NCHSAA Class 4-A state championship at Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville. However, Baldini wasn’t at her best in the 3.1-mile race. She finished at 21:31.39 and the West Forsyth girls cross-country team finished 14th with 353 points, well back of champion Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons, which finished with 50.
“I felt pretty good,” Baldini said. “Regionals and states were like the meets where I was finally coming back and running again, and I felt more myself running.”
Although the result may not have been what she was she was hoping for, she was able to gain some confidence before the indoor and outdoor track-and-field season started this past winter and spring.
“She ended up being, running indoor and they qualified. She was part of that group that went to New York and ran in that 4×8 (relay),” Newsome said. “And outdoor, too. She had enough success. But you can, natural ability can get you pretty far in the 800. So, as the distances get longer that need to have that stronger base is there. So, I’m hoping as the season continues and her training and her mileage mounts and she gets more that eventually she’ll be able to hang on longer.
“But I can see her not being probably where she wants to be yet. And that can be frustrating.”
After running indoor and outdoor track and field as a sophomore, Baldini was able to train throughout the summer. West Forsyth ran in a 2-mile meet in Boone a couple of weeks ago. And just last Wednesday, the girls cross-country team competed in the Norman Trzaskoma Invitational, which is the city-county championship, that was held at Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex.
Baldini finished fourth on the team in what was a 2-mile race with a time of 13:39.20 and helped the team finish runner-up with 47 points, 12 behind winner Reagan.
“I wish it was a little bit faster, but it was definitely better than the weekend before up in Boone, which was just not my greatest day,” she said.
In last week’s Norman Trzaskoma Invitational, Baldini finished behind teammates – senior Lulu Serang (12:21.90), sophomore Tatum Snow (12:25.70), and sophomore Lily Baugh (12:35.70).
“She ran almost a full minute faster (than in Boone),” Newsome said. “And to give you an idea, (the) No. 1 runner was 15 seconds faster.”
The cross-country season, in essence, just started, so there is plenty of time for improvement before the NCHSAA Class 4-A championship on Nov. 2 in Kernersville.
“We have a pretty tight group of girls for like our 4, 5 and 6 that were all like pretty close,” Baldini said. “And I think it will be good when we all work together and if all keep pushing each other and improve, and (make) all of us get faster as a whole. It will help our team very much.”