FISHERSVILLE Josh Wilt started running in the eighth grade with his mother Christy, but it really wasn't until his later years in cross country at Wilson Memorial when he truly started to develop a passion for the sport.

"It's largely a mental sport," Wilt said. "You have to push past those mental barriers. When there's a voice inside you that says you can't, you have to push deeper and find that other voice, the one you know is the real voice, that's telling you that you can and knows that you can."

More importantly, running has taught Wilt how to manage stress and responsibility in the classroom, where he has otherwise found himself excelling. He holds an 3.88 GPA and is ranked 24th in his class. He's Wilson Memorial's fall nominee for the City/County Student Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Elliott Chevrolet and The News Leader.

The senior has attended the Shenandoah Valley Governor's School since his junior year. He's currently enrolled in dual-enrollment calculus, dual-enrollment art history and modern physics. At Wilson Memorial, he also takes AP Government, AP English and Music Theory. More recently, he began tutoring another student struggling in math class.

For his senior capstone project, Wilt formed a running club at Wilson Memorial Middle School. He's overseen 10 young athletes, tracking their ups and downs and developing training plans for their improvement.

He hopes the club — which isn't associated with Augusta County schools — will grow and become a feeder program for the Green Hornets, who traditionally have had strong cross country and distance runners. Wilt is a runner by trade, having been a member of the Green Hornets cross country, indoor track and outdoor track and field teams.

Inside Wilson Memorial, the senior is also the historian for the school's National Honor Society and is a member of the Tri-M Honor Society. He plays the trumpet in the concert band and over the summer has played with the Stonewall Bridge at Gypsy Hill Park.

He hopes to attend Eastern Mennonite University, Bridgewater University or James Madison, though he hasn't decided on a major just yet. With an array of interests, the senior is thinking about physical therapy, music, art, humanities, physics and astronomy.

"My art history teacher knows how I like to connect things through different types of humanities," Wilt said. "And she thinks that I would do well in a career like that. She knows how I want to do music, physical or art therapy and thinks I should be in a position to help people."

When Wilt isn't running or studying, you can find him learning guitar — he playing both acoustic and electric — or the piano. He draws abstract paintings, writes poetry, and when inspiration strikes, even pens short form creative writing.

"Whenever I'm bored, I pick up a pencil and doodle," Wilt said. "If something comes out of it, I work off it and make something out of it. It's fun."

Running seems to bind all these interests together. While competitive at heart, he isn't consumed by winning and largely trusts his coaches to guide him where he needs to be.

"I don't measure success in medals," said Wilt, who was a state qualifier in cross country as a senior. "I've measured what I've accomplished by how much I've improved. In four years I've come a long way."

The first 3.1-mile race Wilt ever ran he finished in 27 minutes. By his senior year, he had knocked off 10 minutes off that time.

"It's crazy to think," Wilt said, "You're always being taught that the mile is a long distance. You're not taught how far it is. And then you run it and it's not that far."

Wilt hasn't stopped running and improving since, both on the track and in the classroom.