Shane Thomas | The Valdosta Daily TimesLowndes High senior cross country athlete Alec Munger, center, sits with his family after signing with Valdosta State University on Friday.

VALDOSTA –– Lowndes High cross country sent all three of its seniors to the next level on Friday.

Seniors Kiley Matheson, Andrew Caruana and Alec Munger each signed college letters of intent. Kiley, daughter of Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, and Munger signed with Valdosta State University while Caruana plans to attend Flagler College in the fall.

Lowndes cross country coaches Martha and Rick Mazurkiewicz talked about what the athletes signing meant to them after the signing.

“It’s very exciting,” Martha said. “100% of our seniors are going to run in college and it’s very nice that they’ve made an impact on us as much as we’ve made an impact on them positively. I’m just so proud of them. All of their hard work coming to a point to where they can take it on their own and run with it. No pun intended.”

Rick added, “We’re lifetime runners and we always hope that getting these kids into running that they’ll continue their career with a healthy lifestyle for the rest of their life. It’s nice to see them continuing their career going into college and running also on a competitive level.”

For Kiley Matheson, having the opportunity to go to Valdosta State has been a lifelong dream.

“It means so much to me,” Kiley said. “I’ve been born and raised here. I’ve always planned on getting into VSU. It’s always been a dream to stay in this community. When I got into cross country, I had no idea what I was doing. Coach Maz has really brought me a long way and I am so thankful for that.”

Her father, a longtime radio host and the current mayor of Valdosta, talked about what Kiley’s journey to signing with the Blazers prior to the ceremony on Friday.

“It’s a fantastic life lesson –– all that effort that she put in, all the practice miles and practice hours and obviously, now it’s something she can take through life that it all pays off,” Matheson said. “She’s the exception. She never wanted to be anything but a Blazer from the time she was getting her diapers changed inside that stadium [laughs]. That’s always been a goal of hers and she went and got it so we couldn’t be more proud.”

As a parent, Matheson says he’ll miss traveling and having a chance to watch his daughter compete at the high school level. He acknowledges that once her career starts at VSU, he’ll have fewer opportunities to do so at the next level with his responsibilities to the community.

“I’m going to be the worst off of them all,” Matheson said of Kiley running for the Vikings. I’m going to so miss going to every little corner of this state and watching her run. It’s been an absolute joy and I’m going to have to travel a lot farther if I want to do it now at the university level at Valdosta State University. We’ll see. I’ll be a mess. I’ll miss watching her compete.”

After recently helping the Vikings finish first at the Andy Summers Invitational in Tifton, Caruana will look to continue his running career with the Flagler Saints in St. Augustine, Fla.

According to Caruana, whose flowing curly hair gives him the look of a surfer, going to school near the beach was a main draw.

“This is everything that we’ve been working for as a team and as an individual myself,” Caruana said. “It’s been a big goal for the last four years of high school. I wanted to go to the beach and I started doing research on schools and then started talking to the coach there at Flagler and things went well.”

Munger will join Kiley with the Blazers in the fall. A two-sport athlete, Munger competes on the cross country team as well as track and field.

According to Munger, he’s always had his eye on running in college. Starting out as a track athlete primarily, Munger has taken to cross country during his time at Lowndes and decided to sign with the Blazers after making a strong connection with VSU cross country coach Todd Smoot.

“I’m super excited,” Munger said. “It means a lot because I’ve pretty much always wanted to run in college since I started running here at Lowndes. Me and Coach Smoot had a pretty good connection from the start. We just hit things off and he’s the one best suited to help me propel my abilities and run as fast as I can.

“I’ve grown a lot. I barely did cross country. I was just kind of a track person, but I ended up loving it and now I do both and I love both. I’ve just grown in my love for the sport and as a person and as a teammate. I just want to see my team do the best they can.”