Nehemiah ‘Tre’ Rivers: Running Out Of A Tall Shadow Towards A Wharton Record

Wharton runner Nehemiah “Tre” Rivers has run out from the shadow of his older sister Bryanna and towards the boys cross country and track record books for Wharton High. (Photo: Andy Warrener)

Like any good cross country runner, Wharton High junior Nehemiah “Tre” Rivers is always chasing something.

For most of his life, it was older sister and former star Wharton runner Bryanna. Then, it was his first meet title, along with all the others that followed.

Now, he has his sights set on the Wharton school record for the 3.1-mile distance.

Nehemiah and his Wildcats teammates head into the Class 4A state meet Saturday in Tallahassee — for the first time since 2008 both the boys and girls will be competing  — looking for a strong finish, and maybe make a little a history in the process.

Nehemiah is certainly primed and ready. At the Class 4A, District 6 meet at Al Lopez Park in Tampa on Oct. 25, he won his second straight individual district title in 16 minutes, 12 seconds. Just the week before, on the same course, at the Hillsborough County Championships meet, he had taken second in 16:10.40, a new personal best.

At the regional meet in Lakeland where the Wharton teams qualified for state, Rivers was fourth overall but his time was only 16:35. The Wharton boys school record is 15:55, set by Ryan Courtoy in 2006 at the Foot Locker South Regional, and Nehemiah has beating that mark as one of his current goals.

Can he get it? His coach think so.

At the county meet, Nehemiah paced off of Citrus Park Christian’s Trevor Foley, who has the second best cross country time in the state this season (15:20). At county, Foley ran a 16:05.60 and pulled Nehemiah along to that 16:10 personal best.

“Tre was going to keep it close with Foley,” Wharton boys track and cross country coach Kyle LoJacono says. “I feel like if Foley ran a 15:50, Tre would have ran a 15:55.”

LoJacono plans to enter Nehemiah in this year’s Footlocker South Regional on Nov. 25 in Charlotte, NC, and if the school record survives Regionals and States, it’s there that the record could very well fall.

LoJacono says he has Nehemiah on an overload cycle, a training method that stacks on miles over the course of about a month. Runners tend to be a little sluggish during overload period, but when they get off of it, it’s a lot like taking the weighted donut off a baseball bat.

Nehemiah was in Day 23 when he repeated as District champ on October 25. Both LoJacono and Rivers are hoping that the peak is right around the corner.

All In The Family

Rivers ran in the long shadow cast by his older sister Bryanna his first two years of high school cross country and track.

Now a collegiate runner at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Bryanna was one of the most accomplished Wharton runners ever. She set the school record in the 800 meters,  and amassed 11 state medals in her four years at Wharton, the most for any track athlete, boy or girl, in the school’s 20-year history.

She’s only the second girl in Wharton track and field history to sign a full-ride college scholarship.

They say you run faster when you have someone to chase, and Tre grew up chasing Bryanna. She always had the edge, but he was getting close to his sister by 11 years old, until a problem with a growth plate in his foot de-railed the effort.

At 13, Nehemiah finally caught up to his big sister, beating her in an 800-meter race. He hasn’t looked back since.

“I see us as equals now,” Nehemiah says. “We both push ourselves to get stronger and rise up to the next challenge.”

Rivers is seizing the opportunity to shine.

“We knew coming in what he could be,” LoJacono says. “He missed time with the foot injury, but we knew it would only be a matter of time before he came along.”

Tre’s ascent has been strong and steady.

He actually won his first high school meet, the Central Hillsborough Invitational, in 2015, but failed to advance past the district meet.

However, his improvement from year to year has been staggering. He slashed three minutes off that first victory by the end of his freshman season, qualified for the state meet as a sophomore with a time 16:49, and then ran a personal best of 16:16 at States.

“When he came out to run his freshman year, it was a fight just to get through Districts, and he didn’t make it,” LoJacono says. “He remembered that the whole year, and it motivated him to have a great sophomore year. Now, he’s established himself as the top runner in the district.”

Why Those Against Connecting Kinnan St. To Mansfield Blvd. Are Wrong

In our last issue, assistant editor John Cotey told you that Hillsborough County had anted up $250,000 in an effort to end the long-time stalemate involving the City of Tampa, Hillsborough and Pasco counties regarding connecting Kinnan St. in New Tampa to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe II at the Hillsborough/Pasco county line.

District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, a New Tampa resident, called the county’s move to set aside funds to build the 60-foot-long connection “a game changer.”

However, on the Pasco County side, Dist. 2 County Commissioner Mike Moore, a Seven Oaks resident, told Cotey that “70-80-percent” of his constituents who have contacted him about him about the connector have been opposed to it. 

I have become friends with Moore over the last few years, but after Cotey’s story came out in our last issue, I called Moore to explain to him my issue with what he said, as well as with anyone who opposes making this long-awaited, much-needed connection.

“You shouldn’t base whether or not to support the Kinnan-Mansfield connection on how many people contact you about it,” I told Moore on the phone. “You should base whether or not to support it on whether or not making the connection is a good idea for your county, for your constituents — and I know it is.”

Some people who live in Meadow Pointe II, on the Pasco side of the barrier to Kinnan St., say they don’t want the two roads connected.

Now, I’m not a transportation engineer, but in the nearly 24 years I have owned the Neighborhood News , I have attended literally hundreds of city, county and Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meetings and I still edit every word of every one of John’s transportation stories and provide insights to him about the history of most of these situations.

Although Kinnan St. is primarily located in the county, it jogs into Tampa’s city limits near the Pasco line, which means that all three governmental entities would have to come to an agreement in order to make the connection.

Moore says he is waiting until after Pasco’s traffic study of that area is completed — which is expected to happen later this month — before deciding which side to support. He says virtually no one is opposed to connecting Meadow Pointe Blvd. (about a mile-and-a-half to the east of Kinnan-Mansfield) to K-Bar Ranch Blvd. in New Tampa, but I don’t believe that connection would be close enough to Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to provide any relief when the only current north-south connection between New Tampa and Wesley Chapel gets backed up — as it does all the time these days, while BBD is being widened between Regents Park Dr. in Pebble Creek and the county line.

The biggest argument the folks in Meadow Pointe II have against making the connection is that Mansfield Blvd. is only a two-lane road that serves four schools — Wiregrass Elementary, John Long Middle School, Wiregrass Ranch High and Pasco Hernando State College. They say that connecting Mansfield to Kinnan would bring additional traffic and increase the danger to students going to and from school.

Sorry, but I call B.S.

Long, the closest of the schools to the possible connection, is located one full mile north of the county line. Vehicles coming from the Cross Creek/Live Oak area would be able to turn right (east) onto Beardsley Dr. to access Meadow Pointe Blvd. and, ultimately, S.R. 54 heading towards Zephyrhills — within 0.3 mile from Kinnan St. Those same drivers also could turn left (west) onto County Line Rd. and hook back up with BBD at Aronwood Blvd. or County Line Rd. a half mile north of Kinnan.

It doesn’t make traffic flow sense that anyone from New Tampa would choose to drive north past four schools during school hours (when there are always crossing guards slowing you down), unless it was their only choice because of a traffic situation on BBD or they were planning to go to the Shops at Wiregrass or some other business on S.R. 56 east of BBD.

In other words, most of the traffic coming from New Tampa heading north would do so in the evenings and on weekends, when there are no students heading to and from school.

It reminds me of New Tampa’s long-time battle for an East-West Connector Road (E-W Rd.). I remember that the people who were screaming the loudest against it were those living along the planned route, in West Meadows and Tampa Palms Area 3. Those folks didn’t appreciate my unconditional support of that connector, even though that road still isn’t built today and seemingly never will be.

Today, many of those same anti-connector New Tampa residents don’t know how they could survive if the so-called Gateway Bridge — the first leg of the E-W Rd. — had never been built connecting West Meadows to Tampa Palms.

Likewise, I’m certain that it’s actually the people in Meadow Pointe II who will get the most benefit from the Kinnan-Mansfield connection. I also can’t believe that they would prefer to see it continue to be piled high with garbage (photo) than allow that tiny connection to become a reality.