With his signature on a National Letter of Intent to run for the Faulkner Eagles on Tuesday, Feb. 20, Baxley Blanton became Bayshore Christian School’s first athlete to sign with a college cross country team.

A member of two state championship teams for the Bayshore Christian Eagles, Blanton will serve as a key piece to the long distance revival happening at Faulkner.

After the college fielded teams from 1998-2006 mainly with other sports’ athletes, the school disbanded the cross country program. At the beginning of 2022, cross country was approved as the college’s next expansion sport and Zachery Cook was selected as the team’s first full-time coach.

Now, Blanton will have a roster spot on the third Eagle cross country team since its revival and those familiar with him were none too surprised.

“The Bayshore Christian School community is proud of Baxley and all of his accomplishments. He is the first BCS cross country runner to sign, and this is due to his strong work ethic and determination,” said Ann-Marie Cook, Director of Admissions and cross country coach. “He is a trusted teammate, and a coachable, excellent athlete. We are thrilled to see Baxley glorify Christ with his gifts, and are excited to see what he does in the future.”

Blanton helped the Bayshore Christian Eagles to a state title on the Class 1A-2A circuit in 2021 and the 3A stage in 2023. His personal record 3K time of 11:05 sits third best in program history according to athletic.net and his 5K time of 18:37 is ninth overall.

Faulkner closed this past season last in the team competition of the Southern States Athletic Conference’s championship but four of five runners logged personal-record times.

Two Baldwin County High School alumnae held roster spots on the 2023 Eagle women’s cross country team, including senior Morgan Baker and freshman Kailee Cox.