The first time Aidan Dimick ran the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, he was racing his older brother Ryan.
The race was nothing official, mind you, at least not for Dimick, who was a grade schooler at the time. He was merely a kid with a dream, and an older brother on the Carlmont cross country team whom he admired. And while Ryan was running in the Central Coast Section championships in 2013, Dimick was there as a fan, but would use the spectator median to run alongside his brother at certain stretches of Belmont’s renowned scenic course.
“I remember running around trying to catch him when he was going by,” Dimick said.
Ryan earned the CCS Division I championship that November 2013 day. And five years later, when Dimick arrived at Carlmont, he embraced the dream of someday matching his brother’s feat as a CCS champion.
This season, as a senior, Dimick realized that dream as he ran into school history — becoming the seventh Carlmont runner ever to claim the CCS cross-country championship — joining a select Carlmont fraternity of great brother tandems to shine on the cross-country circuit. However, the Dimicks are now in class by themselves as the only brothers in Carlmont cross-country history to both call themselves CCS champs.
Granted, it would have been tougher for Carlmont brothers Kyle and Drew Shackleton to both win CCS championships. The twin brothers both graduated in 2004, and finished one-two atop the CCS podium as seniors in 2003, with Kyle taking first place and Drew second.
“Aidan winning CCS this year, I think it’s the first brother combo to win CCS (for any school),” Carlmont head coach John Lilygren said.
Dimick, by his own admission, doesn’t look like he should be an elite runner. His “awful form,” his words, is inherent in the Dimick boys, though each unique in his own style.
“We all have awful form, but it’s awful in a different way,” Dimick said.
Dimick is entirely candid about his awkward running style, in which he hardly picks his feet up off the ground and generates speed from a high cadence of steps. His knee drive? Nil. His kickback? Nil.
“Everyone who sees me run says I look like a gremlin,” Dimick said.
Lilygren, who has coached at Carlmont since 2017, first heard the buzz about Dimick from the family’s middle brother Kyle, who was a senior when Dimick arrived on campus.
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It took some time for Dimick to realize his potential, however. Hampered by injuries his sophomore and junior seasons, he entered his senior season having never won a varsity race. Dimick’s best finish prior to this season came as a sophomore in 2019, when he took fourth place at the CCS championships with a time of 15 minutes, 27 seconds — finishing well off the pace of champion Colin Peattie of Bellarmine, who recorded a time of 15:02.8.
At this season’s CCS championships, though, Dimick was the one leaving the rest of the pack in the dust.
“Last summer after having a foot injury … he came back from that and he really concentrated on training throughout the summer to get ready for senior year,” Lilygren said. “So, when he showed up for cross country, he was in great shape. And the rest is history.”
After winning all but three races prior to the CCS meet this season, Dimick broke the 15-minute mark, becoming just the fourth runner in Carlmont history to do so on the 2.95-mile course at Crystal Springs, recording a time of 14:58.9.
“I came out of the last chute alone, and being there, and knowing they all got to see me alone … it was definitely really satisfying,” Dimick said.
That wouldn’t be Dimick’s last podium climb of the season though. Two weeks later, at the CIF State Cross Country Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno, Dimick was intent on running with the top tier in the Division I race. This was a tall order, as national power Newbury Park — a school that had traditionally run in the Division II race — was bumped up to Division I this season.
Five runners from Newbury Park claimed the top seven spots in the Division I race. Right behind them, finishing in the eighth place — a podium finish at the state championships — was Dimick, with a time of 15:14.7. It is the fastest time at the state meet for any Carlmont runner in the school’s history.
“He was very dedicated and very determined,” Lilygren said. “And going into state, just looking around, I figured he could finish top 20. But to finish top 10, that was just amazing.”
Had it been any other year, sans the Newbury Park runners, Dimick would have finished in third place. But the senior actually wears the eighth-place finish, as opposed to higher, as a badge of honor.
“I think it’s pretty cool to be up on the podium with them,” Dimick said. “I’ll have that picture forever, so I think that’s pretty cool.”
With track-and-field season on the horizon in the spring, Dimick, as a 1,600- and 3,200-meter specialist, still has more of his high school legacy to write. But in joining Carlmont’s other CCS cross-country champions — Hans Templeton (1970); Bob Love (1977); Brett Mack (1987); Kyle Shackleton (2003); Ethan Scardina (2008); and Ryan Dimick (2013) — his place in Scots cross-country lore is already secured.
“I’m extremely satisfied,” Dimick said. “I did not think it would end up like this. … I just didn’t think I’d be able to run in so many races and win them. With the lack of injuries, I was just able to run.”
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