Isaac Pohlmeier, senior running phenom for the Ozark Catholic Academy Griffins, is rarely stumped in interviews. Being one of the more heralded athletes to come out of middle school in run-crazy northwest Arkansas, he’s fielded questions since his days of dominating the competition at St. Joseph School in Fayetteville.

But in the closing moments of this interview a question flew at him that caused him to stop and take serious stock of his running career.

Just how many high school state golds has he won, anyway?

“Umm, well, I’ve won three individual state cross country titles and part of four team titles,” he began. “We won one track team title and then, let’s see, I’ve won the mile my first three years, so that’s three, and then the two-mile twice, so that’s five, and then I’ve won the 800 twice, so that’s seven.”

He pauses, then adds quickly, “I don’t know if these count, but I’ve been on the state championship four-by-1800-meter relay twice as well.”

The fact that Pohlmeier has to stop and think about being a 17-time state champ says it all about the senior who, along with the two graduating classes ahead of him and his fellow senior mates, have laid the groundwork for a running dynasty at small, close-knit OCA. At the head of that column has been the slight but powerful strider Pohlmeier who has set the pace literally and figuratively for the past four years.

“We were confident going in that, even though we’ve got the target on our back, and we were the team that everyone was trying to beat, if we just ran our own race and ran the way we knew we could run it’d all work itself out,” he said. “We just wanted to win as big as possible.”

As final acts go, the 2024 2A state meet, held Nov. 7-8 at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, was a humdinger. The Griffins were running in a new classification for the first time, having decimated the competition in 1A as threepeat state cross-country champions. The move was supposed to level the playing field by pushing OCA up against larger schools and, theoretically, stiffer competition.

Thing is, theories don’t always hold up, especially in athletics where the human spirit and drive can lay the best-placed logic to waste, much like the Griffins did this year. In addition to Pohlmeier smoking the state field, finishing nearly a full minute ahead of teammate Joey Squillance in second place, the Griffins all clustered in the top 11 placements.

In a sport where low score wins, the meet was a laugher with the Griffins finishing 69 points ahead of second-place Caddo Hills. And all this, mind you, under gray, rainy skies that turned the course into a boggy mud slick.

“Super muddy, a bunch of puddles and water and mud all over the course. It was mostly just a fight to get your legs to warm up because it was so cold,” Pohlmeier said. “It was a fight to get through that mud, because every time you would step you would sink into the ground instead of bouncing off the grass like usual.

“A lot of it was just strength, being confident in your leg strength and knowing that once you stepped into it, you could push yourself up thanks to the constant training you did for months to get your legs stronger.”

Pohlmeier was quick to credit the efforts of the team from top to bottom but saved special praise for his senior teammate Squillance.

“I knew we had a good shot to win big again this year and (Squillance) and I just kept pushing each other in practice,” he said. “We kept each other accountable on weekends, we’d go on long runs and push each other. We wanted to go out with the first (2A state title) in OCA history.”

The teammates have one last hurrah at the high school level ― looking to avenge last year’s narrow upset loss in track and field team scoring ― before stepping into the next chapter. For Pohlmeier, that means running for Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia next season while studying kinesiology. He and Squillance leave OCA knowing the program is in very good hands.

In addition to juniors, particularly Ben Frederick and Liam Burney, “I have an eighth-grade brother who runs cross country; he’ll go to OCA next year,” Pohlmeier said. He described the oncoming Dominic Pohlmeier as “pretty good” before his competitive streak kicked in.

“I mean, he’s slower than what I was running as an eighth grader, but only by about 30 or 40 seconds,” he said with a big brother grin. “He’s pretty quick. Just not as quick as I was.”

Like every state, Arkansas has its famous families, those that have risen to the top of their respective fields of endeavor. Mention Walton, Hunt or Stephens and people immediately think of business; mention Rockefeller, Pryor or Huckabee and thoughts turn to politics.

In northwest Arkansas, one family has made its name in several ways. The Pohlmeiers of Fayetteville are known for their longstanding contributions to Catholic education and doctrine, with educators, administrators, deacons and even a bishop on the family tree. And, of late, the family is also known for winning — a lot — a tradition carried on by Clare Pohlmeier, one of the top runners in the state.

Pohlmeier, a junior at Ozark Catholic Academy, has been a runner to watch in Class 1A since she was a freshman, both on the track and over the cross-country course. As a ninth grader, she placed second in the 1A state cross country meet, a feat she repeated last season as the girls team placed third overall in both years.

In track, her inaugural state meet saw her come home with two silvers ― 1600 meters and 3200 meters ― and a bronze in the 4×800 relay as the Griffins were second in team scoring. Last spring, however, OCA turned the tide and laid waste to the field, winning the 1A girls’ track title led by their super sophomore. Pohlmeier won at 3200 meters and was second at 800 meters, 1600 meters and the 4×800 meter relay.

Pohlmeier said her focus in off-season training has been on consistency, keeping the right intensity and driving to improve. She’s also honed the mental aspect to match her physical abilities.

“It’s really hard to stay positive with running,” she said. “A big thing is, when it comes to running, your body can go further, but it’s your mind telling you to stop because it’s too painful. It’s really hard to get over that hurdle of telling your body that you can do it when your mind says you can’t.”

When asked for her techniques for training the mind in such a grueling sport, Pohlmeier said she relies on her Catholic faith.

“Honestly, I like to pray a lot while I run,” she said. “I’ll be running, and if I start to have those thoughts of, like, you can’t do it, I’ll be like, no, God says I can, so I’ll just keep going. It makes it easier for me to push myself during practices.”

Pohlmeier’s other secret weapon has been the presence of her older brother, Isaac Pohlmeier, an OCA senior. One of the most decorated high school runners in Arkansas over the past three seasons, Isaac brought home eight golds over the past two years at state track to go with state championship cross-country titles each of the last two years. OCA’s boys, however, were edged out in 2024’s team scoring, spoiling a quest for back-to-back titles and giving Clare a measure of bragging rights.

“There’s a lot of, like, little sibling competitions. You want to be better than the other,” she said. “During the season, we’ll always be joking with each other as to who’s better or whatever. But then, when it comes down to the actual important meets, we’re always cheering each other on and being there for each other.”

She chuckled, then added, “It’s definitely a complicated relationship.”

What isn’t complicated is the challenge that lies before the squad in the new year. Due to the Griffins’ dominance, the school was reclassified 2A, pitting them against larger schools. Ever the competitor, the unflappable Pohlmeier doesn’t shy away when handicapping her squad’s chances to hang with the tougher competition.

“I think it’s going to be a really big mental game this season,” she said. “We all need to be on the same page if we want to win. We’re all going to have to work individually and push ourselves as hard as we can, but also push as a team and help other people be motivated to work hard. That’s really it, same as always.”