Runners from Hanceville and West Point stroll toward the 1-mile mark during Monday's Cullman County cross country meet.

COLD SPRINGS — Move over, Tuscaloosa. You aren’t the only Title Town in Alabama anymore.

At the rate Cold Springs brings in championships these days, it’s safe to start calling the cozy community by a new name — County Title Town.

In a scene that’s become all too familiar, Kramer Crider claimed the top spot in the boys race and the Eagles ran away with the team trophy at the 2014 Cullman County cross country meet Monday on their home course.

The county championship was Cold Springs’ third in the last week (volleyball and girls cross country) and fifth in the last year (boys basketball and girls track). The individual win was Crider’s third consecutive on the county stage, and the team triumph was the Eagles’ 11th.

The latest leg of Crider’s three-peat meant more than any other to the junior considering the overwhelming amount of adversity he had to overcome to complete it.

Crider didn’t initially think a thing of a bothersome right Achilles early last December, training through it and even setting a PR in the 2-mile at his first indoor race. However, the ailing appendage eventually began emitting a “weird, rattling sound,” leaving Crider with no other choice than to finally go to the doctor.

There, the speedster was placed in a protective boot for two weeks with Achilles tendonitis. Crider returned to the trails the second he was cleared but didn’t take long to notice his foot was far from fixed. According to a subsequent MRI, the culprit was microtears, placing him back in the boot for an additional three weeks.

When that torturous stretch of time off didn’t produce results, Crider became flat-out frustrated. His dear ol’ dad, Tony, came to the rescue, though, reaching out to a surgeon he knew at the Andrew Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center.

The surgeon’s plan of attack was Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, which consisted of drawing blood from Crider’s arm, extracting the platelets and injecting them with pinpoint precision in the injured Achilles.

The biggest benefit was an exponentially quicker healing process. And, as everyone knows by now, Crider is all about quick.

“That was a blessing,” he said of the procedure. “It worked.”

But just when Crider thought he was in the clear, his body was dealt another blow.

Shin pain, this time on the opposite leg, struck the long-distance specialist midway through the summer. Crider’s immediate thought was shin splints — “I’m always in denial” — but the doctor revealed the teen had actually suffered a stress reaction, the lesser-known little brother of a stress fracture.

Fortunately, the remedy wasn’t to stop running completely. Unfortunately, it was to scale back to running three days a week at most, which threw a wrench in Crider’s training as cross country season quickly approached.

He progressively added more days to his weekly workout until the start of September, when he was consistently able to handle six days a week again.

“And now I’m here, I’m better,” Crider said during his cool down Monday, which was well deserved after a 17:20 5K in soggy conditions. “It’s nice to have it three years in a row. But after going through all that, it’s just encouraging to know that anybody can go through trouble, and that trouble doesn’t always lead to failure.

“All of those injuries aren’t an excuse. That’s just some bad luck, and you’ve got to push through it.”

Crider was also pushed by teammates Jared Stanley and C.J. Lang, who stuck with the winner for the first mile before settling in for second- and third-place runs. Stanley and Lang, who turned in respective times of 17:37 and 17:49, have both led Cold Springs at meets this fall while Crider has continued to recover.

“They’ve really stepped it up this season,” Crider said. “It’s good to be able to train with people as good as them. They really help push through all the workouts, and, especially in races, it’s great to work as a team like we have been.

“I think we’re all going to really get closer as a team from now to state. Hopefully we can all fight together and do something we’ve never done. I’m excited.”

Austin Burwell (18:41) and Trentan Williams (19:28) were ninth and 17th to round out the Eagles’ 32-point effort. Fairview secured runner-up honors with 60 points, and West Point was third with 74. Holly Pond, Vinemont and Hanceville were fourth, fifth and sixth.

Joining Crider, Stanley, Lang and Burwell as All-County runners were West Point’s Joey Riggs (18:12) and Nick Johnson (18:19), fourth and fifth; Vinemont’s Hunter Green (18:19), sixth; Fairview’s Jerrami Browder (18:38) and Reece Walker (18:39), seventh and eighth; Hanceville’s Casey Guthery (18:44), 10th; Fairview’s Cody Fallin (18:47), 11th; West Point’s Jesse Farrell (18:49), 12th; Fairview’s Logan Murphree (18:51), 13th; Holly Pond’s Parker Smith (18:59), 14th; and Vinemont’s Trey Waldrep (19:06), 15th.

The Aggies’ top five were Browder, Walker, Fallin, Murphree and Colby Chapman (20:00), 21st.

The Warriors’ top five were Riggs, Johnson, Farrell, Nick Roman (20:43), 26th; and Kyle Huffstutler (21:05), 29th.

The Broncos’ top five were Smith, Corey Hammonds (19:14), 16th; Colton Teeling (19:50), 19th; Jacob Drane (19:57), 20th; and Austin Hammonds (20:10), 22nd.

Vinemont’s top five were Waldrep, Matthew Harrington (20:54), 28th; Stevie Yeager (21:29), 32nd; Seth Campbell (22:19), 37th; and Austin Johnson (29:33), 55th.

The Bulldogs’ top five were Guthery, J.K. Davis (20:53), 27th; C.J. White (22:59), 42nd; Douglas Mahaffey (24:16), 45th; and Austin Duncan (24:30), 46th.

Good Hope’s Gage Henke (25:31) was 48th.

Fairview edged Hanceville 38-47 for the junior varsity boys title. West Point and Vinemont were third and fourth.

In order, All-County JV runners were Tate Brown and Caleb Guthery, Hanceville; Zachery Peterson, Vinemont; Will Butler, Quinton Chambers and Blake Hogan, Fairview; Jacob Mosher, West Point; Josh Martin, Vinemont; Jeremy Reid and Micah Coucke, West Point; Malcolm Parker and Austin Lowe, Fairview; Max Bavar, Good Hope; and Fredrick Ellis and Isaac Abbot, Hanceville.