Colin Baker Won Two More State Titles In South Carolina This Weekend While Reflecting On His Mother

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Colin Baker and his family will attend a Mother's Day Brunch today in Charleston, S.C., but the guest of honor won't be there. 

Baker, who won South Carolina Class AAA titles in the 3,200 meters and 1,600 meters this weekend, lost his mother, Blythe Bickford Baker, after a long and hard-fought battle with cancer April 11. She was 48. 

"I was thinking about her a lot," Baker related Saturday night after his final race in an Academic Magnet uniform. "More specifically, I was thinking about how much time and energy she put into supporting me over the years and how I owe it to her to go out there and give it my best effort."

Baker's best efforts are off the charts. 

By practically any measure, he belongs on a short list of the great high school scholar-athletes in the United States. 

Baker will graduate this spring from Charleston's Academic Magnet, an elite school that was rated the No. 1 high school in the country last month by U.S. News and World Reports. 

The area's best and brightest go to Magnet, where Honors and Advance Placement classes are the norm for the 700 students selected to attend. Every student completes an independent research project over their junior and senior years. 

A couple of years ago, Liam Christensen wrote his senior thesis on Implementing The Javelin In The South Carolina High School League (SCHSL). Christensen, a national champion in the event, was frustrated that his state was one of the many where javelin has not been adopted as a state championship event. (Next year, because of Christensen's compelling thesis, it will be added in the spring of 2020). 

Colin Baker spent last summer working five days a week as a research intern at Medical University of South Carolina studying Oncolytic Virotherapy -- employing viruses to seek out and destroy cancer cells. 

Baker's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer more than a decade ago. After it was initially treated, the cancer seemed to be gone. 

Three years ago, she was re-diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. The disease eventually spread to her bones, liver and brain. 

There was a lot of time to prepare for what became an inevitability. Colin and his younger brother, Finn, knew what was coming. 

When Colin was accepted into Magnet his freshman year he made a goal of competing at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships by the time he was a senior. A runner in the area, Brent Demarest, a 2014 graduate of Porter-Gaud High, had become one of the rare South Carolinians to make it. 

"Seeing him make it and hearing from his parents, and him, about how great an experience it was, made me want to do it," Baker said. 

The freshman told his coach, Brian Johnson, that he wanted to run at the national meet in San Diego. 

"His freshman year he wasn't the best freshman in South Carolina, by far," Johnson said. "Colin's a really good student and really driven individual. He's the most focused runner I've ever had, and I spent 14 years coaching at college before these past seven at Magnet. He's self-motivated, focused, and pays attention to detail. He can be hard on himself. He's a perfectionist."

At the high-powered school, Baker's first season of high school cross country did little to indicate he was a future Foot Locker candidate. He ran under 17 minutes just once. 

"Early on, I didn't have a lot of success in the sport," he said. "I didn't hit my growth spurt until my sophomore year."

Baker was driven, in the classroom and in his pursuit of running. 

In an area with few hills, and in a climate is not conducive to distance running, Baker kept applying effort and motivation. He could run from his house, just a few minutes from the east end of the 4-kilometer long Ravenel Bridge across Charleston Harbor, and jog up and over its long sweeping arc.

Baker has run over the bridge countless times. It's his hill. It offers majestic vistas of Charleston and the bay and the Atlantic Ocean, especially at sunrise. It's where he can clear his mind. 

As a junior, Baker won the South Carolina 2A cross country title and went on to place 17th at Foot Locker South regional. Progress, yes. A top-10 finish was within sight. 

Coming into the fall of his senior year, Baker encountered an enormous workload. He prepared his senior thesis while simultaneously committing to 70 weekly miles in pursuit of his Foot Locker dream. And the worry over his mother's condition weighed on him as well. 

"It was difficult to balance all three, and at times it felt pretty overwheleming," Baker said. "I have a lot of support at Magnet and with my family. My mother was so stoic through everything. She would always kind of hide it from me."

In October, Baker made his family and his school proud when he chose to attend Harvard University. The other schools in his top-four were Princeton, Yale and Duke. 

"It was a special moment, definitely the best so far in my life," Baker said. 

Another big moment came in November when he placed fourth at the Foot Locker South regional to earn a trip to the Foot Locker Finals in San Diego. 

Baker's mother, weakened by her cancer, made the trip with him. 

Her ability to stay positive contributed to Colin's sticking with it when times got tough and the goal seemed out of reach.

Today, Baker says if there is one thing he learned from his mother that he wants to take with him to Harvard, it's this:

"Her ability to approach everything with a positive spirit," he said. "I would get frustrated freshman and sophomore years, when I wasn't achieving very highly. She always kept me positive. With her cancer, I can see how easy it would be to get negative. I'm sure she had negative thoughts at times, but her positivity was infectious."

Baker ran in the Foot Locker finals and finished eighth -- the best ever for a boy from South Carolina. 

Coming into 2019, Baker and his mom talked about one more goal: Breaking the state record in the 3,200 meters.

The target was 8:56.09. It had been the South Carolina record since 1988. 

Baker boarded a plane and went to the Arcadia Invitational in California, accompanied by his father. His mom was in the hospital. She watched the live webcast from her bed. 

Baker managed to concentrate on the race, relied on his training to carry him eight laps, and finished the race in 8:54.68. 

Another box checked off. 

"We were super-excited," Baker said. "I called her on the phone after the race so we could talk about it. She was super happy that I broke the record. It was a cool moment."

That conversation, in the aftermath of the Arcadia boys 3,200 meters, was the last time that Colin spoke to his mother. 

He flew back home Sunday and by the time he was able to visit, she was unable to speak. She died four days later, on a Thursday. 

"There's some consolation in knowing that she watched (the race)," Johnson said. "She knew how hard he worked. She made it to San Diego with him (for Foot Locker)."

There is an additional footnote. Two years ago, Johnson, discovered he had leukemia and underwent a bone marrow transplant. He is in remission, but will step down from coaching duties to spend more time with his family. He stayed through this spring to see Baker and one other senior complete their journeys. 

Baker intends to race one more time, at the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle, Wash., on June 15. LIVE WEBCAST INFO

He will graduate from Academic Magnet on June 7. 

Those things, much like this weekend's state championship meet, are part of Baker's new reality. His mom is with him now only in spirit. 

The night of Arcadia, with a personal triumph and a conversation with mom, was the defining moment of a successful, yet heartbreaking, year. 

"I think that night was a sense of closure for both of us," Baker said. "You could liken it to a passing of the baton. She fought her cancer for as long as she could to help me see my dreams come to fruition. Once I accomplished the last major goal I set with her, she knew she could finally rest easy."