X country takes Robert cross country to Georgia

BARSTOW - Robert Densmore will be getting a change of scenery this summer.

The Barstow High School cross country runner will travel cross country to attend the University of West Georgia in two months. Densmore will arrive at the school in mid July to attend school orientation and get aquatinted with his surroundings.

He received a $6,000 percent scholarship from West Georgia to run on their cross country team. He plans to participate in the track program too. He will study criminology at West Georgia, something he gained a love for at the early age of 2 while watching COPS.

Densmore took a trip to the school earlier this year.

"I took a visit to the school in February for a weekend, and I liked it a lot," Densmore said. "It was actually green out there, not like the desert. They had trees on the campus. It'll be nice to live somewhere that's different than here."

He won't be alone at West Georgia. Densmore is dating Rebecca Raymond, who signed a volleyball scholarship to the college in November. Densmore said Raymond put in a good word for him with the athletic department which led to cross country coach Frank Butts offering Densmore the scholarship.

During Densmore's visit to West Georgia he met his coaches, teammates and even his future roommate. The school has a young team primarily consisting of sophomores and juniors. Densmore said the team is pretty open and that he thinks it will be easy for him to fit in. Last year the Wolves took ninth in regionals and didn't make it to the national level something Densmore said he hopes to change next year.

Densmore has experience with helping build championship teams. He was part of Barstow's CIF State Championship teams in 2005 and 2006. Densmore has earned all-league and All-CIF honors in cross country for the past two years. He finished 24th in the state last year and 35th in the state this year. Densmore accomplished all of this while dealing with several injuries during his high school career.

"I think what stood out to me about Robert was his optimism," Barstow cross country coach Jim Duarte said. " He was hurt a lot throughout the years and he always had the optimism and drive to work out of it. He did things to help his teammates even with the injuries. Optimism helps a lot to overcoming injuries."

Densmore said his drive for running and cross country comes from two people, Steve Prefontaine and his dad Bob Densmore. Bob was a state champion in cross country during the 1980s. He still holds the track and field record for the two mile run at Blaine High School in Washington with a time of 9:30. Robert said he hopes to beat his dad's times.

"Robert would see my trophies, medals and newspaper clippings and I think that got him interested in running," Bob said. "There's one photo of my mom cheering with her arm up that we always talk about. It's from back in 1983. It just rubbed off on him."