Redshirt junior Matt Cleaver did not always dream of running competitively until his freshman year in high school.

MATT CLEAVER

“The cross country coach lived in my neighborhood and always told me, ‘Matt, I’m going to get you [on the team], and I [thought] ‘yeah, whatever.’ Sure enough I came to orientation and said, ‘Okay, I’ll give this thing a shot,’and ever since then it’s been going from there.”

And going he has been. Prior to attending the University, the former Wheeler High stand out broke school records in both track and cross country. At the 2006 GHSA AAAAA cross-country championships, he recorded a time of 15:52.13, setting a new school record at Wheeler. A year later he broke his own mark with a time of 15:48.91, this time standing alone as the 2007 AAAAA State Champion. He followed up his fall championship in the spring. On the track, Cleaver was the 2008 state champion in the 3200-meter race and runner up in the 1600m.

The following fall, Cleaver was in Athens, now running for the Bulldogs. He got his first of many top 10s for Georgia with a time of 19:57 at the 6200m Georgia-Georgia Tech dual meet. He added to his freshman feats, scoring for Georgia in the Catamount Classic, and the NCAA South Regional.

As a sophomore, Cleaver improved upon his first year as a Bulldog, finishing 2^nd in the 2009 Georgia-Georgia Tech duals. He scored in four meets for Georgia including, a career best 25:29.24 at the NCAA Pre-Nationals.

After redshirting for the 2010 cross-country season, Cleaver added an SEC steeplechase championship to his trophy case this past Spring in Athens.

“That’s definitely the highlight of my career so far,” he said. “Nothing’s really compared to that.”

Coming off his Steeplechase championship and, Cleaver has returned to the trails, scoring for Georgia in every race he has ran this season in what he says has been a “memorable” season.

He expects to continue the scoring trend and add to his list of feats when he returns to Harry Pritchett Running Park Saturday in Tuscaloosa for the NCAA South Regional Championships.

“I haven’t ran in this meet in 2 years. I’ve definitely grown physically and mentally so expectations are pretty high,” Cleaver said.

Cleaver is coming off an 8^th place finish at the SEC Championships, leading the Bulldogs to a 3^rd place finish, the program’s best since 2004, and is confident that he and the team will improve upon those efforts Saturday.

“Individually, getting a win would be awesome, but top five is ideal. I am [also] focused on getting the team to nationals. This season as a whole has been pretty memorable. The whole team unity is pretty huge. The growth on the team has been awesome.”