Todd Beamer High School senior Austin Jex takes his responsibilities as team captain for his cross country team seriously.

“It was really humbling and flattering to be made captain and I really want to make a difference for our younger runners,” he said. “Our team is like a big family, there are 50 or 60 of us, and we are always laughing.”

Jex’s coach Jennifer Allen said Jex was voted captain his junior and senior year for excelling in cross country since his freshman year and leading by example.

“Austin has been a stellar student athlete since he stepped on to Todd Beamer’s campus,” Allen said. “We have a fairly young boy’s team this year but Austin has brought them together. Before every race, he pumps up the runners with the ‘Prepare for Glory’ speech he wrote about Todd Beamer and cross country. Austin is a true asset to Todd Beamer High School and the cross country program.”

Jex said he wrote the speech after learning more about Todd Beamer, the man the high school was named after.

Beamer was a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93 during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

He was one of th e passengers who attempted to foil the hijacking and reclaim the aircraft, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

“He called his wife before the plane crashed and told her, ‘Today, let’s roll,’” Jex said. “That’s one of our mantras here.”

Jex renewed the team chant because he said his team didn’t feel inspired by the former team chant.

“It was pretty lame just because it was ordinary and generic,” he said. “I wanted to make it more personal for our team so that when we said it in our huddle it would mean something for us.”

Jex started competing in cross country when he was in sixth grade.

“I have kept up running because I really like the sense of accomplishment I feel when I achieve what I know I can do and reach my potential,” he said.

Jex placed first in all of the local meets and also placed in the top 10 in several larger invites, with a personal record of 16:11 for a 3.2 mile race.

“My goal for cross country this season is to break 16 minutes and make it to state,” he said.

Currently, Todd Beamer girls are ranked 3-0, and the Beamer boys are 1-2.