Former High Point University track runner and soccer player Cole Atkins was named one of eight 2013-14 Roads Scholar, announced the Road Runners Club of America on Thursday. Atkins earned three All-Big South awards while at HPU and graduated with his master's degree in 2010.
The Roads Scholar program awards grants to support post-collegiate runners that are attempting to take the next step into becoming world-class road runners. Since it's inception in 1996, the Roads Scholar program has bestowed over $450,000 in grants.
Atkins played four seasons from 2004-07 as a midfielder on the HPU men's soccer team. In 76 games, Atkins scored three goals and dished out seven assists. In 2008, following the conclusion of his senior soccer season, Atkins joined the High Point track & field team.
Atkins ran with the team in the 2008-09 indoor season placing third in the 3,000-meter with a time of 8:30.24 and sixth in the 5,000-meter in 15:06.40 at the Big South Indoor Championship. He missed all but one outdoor race in 2009 as a result of injuries before being granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA for the 2010 outdoor season.
In the 2010 outdoor season, Atkins ran a 29:20.77 in his first 10,000-meter race at the Stanford Invitational. That time made Atkins HPU's No. 2 all-time 10,000-meter runner. He ran a 30:20.70 for a runner-up finish in the 10,000-meter race at the Big South Outdoor Championship later that season. He also finished with a third place showing at the championship in the 5,000-meter race coming in at 15:13.28.
Atkins was a Millis Scholar-Athlete and Big South Presidential Honor Roll member every year at HPU. Since earning his undergraduate degree in International Business in 2008 and his Master's of Business Administration in 2010, Atkins has been a member of the ZAP Fitness training center, which is a professional running organization composed of elite post-collegiate distance runners.
Atkins has continued to enjoy success as a post-collegiate runner, recording the fastest road 8K of any American in 2010 by finishing in 23:18. He surpassed that mark in 2012 by crossing the line in 22:50. In addition, Atkins qualified for the USA Indoor Track Championships last winter with an 8:00 mark in the 3,000-meter race in Boston. He followed that performance up in May by running the second fastest time of any American in the past 10 years at the 10-mile Broad Street race in Philadelphia finishing in 47:44.
Atkins plans to continue his training in the coming months with the hopes of joining a U.S. national team. He will have his first opportunity to make a U.S. team roster at the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in January.
