PINETOWN — A stress fracture above his knee cost Holden Newman his entire junior season, but that’s as much as it will slow him down. The Northside cross country standout is ready to go for his senior campaign and beyond, too. Newman recently secured a spot on the UNC-Pembroke cross country squad.

“I was happy,” Newman said. “I feel like I belong there. I love the campus and the coaches are really nice.”

The recovery process was a tough one for Newman. He had to train himself mentally to ease himself back into his training and routines before he could even put much of the physical work in.

“It was tough just sitting around the house not doing anything,” he said. “When I got back into it, I couldn’t go full steam. I had to gradually walk myself through it. I’m gradually getting there. It’s going to be a time thing.”

Newman couldn’t physically impact the team, but he was still one of the leaders. He had his goals for the Panthers last season. He took pride in what they were able to accomplish.

“I just wanted to go further than we did — send more kids to regionals and states,” he said. “We sent 16 to regionals, which is double what we sent the year before.”

His performance in prior years helped build Northside into what it became this past season. Newman has never been beaten in 1-A Coastal Plains Conference action. The competition wasn’t great early in his prep career, but it’s caught up and encouraged him to get better.

“Freshman year, there wasn’t much competition, but I wasn’t up to where I could have been,” he said. “Then, sophomore and junior year, that’s when all the competition came. I was fighting for just about every inch.”

With a return to running in the plans, Newman is ready to continue fighting for every inch. Between his upcoming senior year and college on the horizon, he knows that he’s going to be seeing some of the best competition he’s seen yet, which is exciting. It’s that challenge that he expects to help push him to become even better.

“I’ll definitely improve quite a bit because I won’t be the fastest one there,” he said. “I’ll have quite a step to go. I’ll have to go through quite a lot of people — just about the whole team — to get there.

“I just want to keep bettering myself academically and athletically. I want to improve my times.”

After graduating, Newman said he’d like to study business. Like his recovery, though, he’s taking everything else one step at a time, too.