By CAROL STUART
Brentwood Home Page
Runners in two of the boys state championship races Saturday might do a double-take and wonder if that guy hadn’t already passed them.

Twins Alec Thomas, left and Aaron Thomas compete for region champ BHS.

The Brentwood High and Brentwood Academy cross country teams, both in the running to win state titles, each have a pair of standout sophomore twin brothers on their varsity squads: Aaron and Alec Thomas for BHS, and Andrew and Garrett Bull for BA. The Thomases also have an older brother, senior Nathan, who is one of the state’s top runners as well.

“It's competitive, but it's more than that for us,” Alec said this week. “We're there to push each other. It gets competitive, not just with running but in everything we’re trying to outdo each other.”

Said Aaron: “We always want each other to do good, but we’re always competitive about winning. We like to win … I do want him to do good and really hope the best for him.”

There are quite a few other twins seen on fields, courts and tracks around Brentwood as well including: Haile and Sara Jarnagan, BHS senior basketball players; Deanna and Breanna Tate, BA sophomore track runners; Cameron and Christopher Currin, BA football players; and BHS cheerleaders Peyton and Ashton Lee.

At BHS, Jake Davis plays football, while his brother Zach does the WBHS-Channel 9 sideline commentary and is a competitive swimmer. Ravenwood had freshman twin brothers on last year’s state soccer team, Josh and Zach Keller, but they were rezoned to Centennial this year.

The last time BA’s Andrew and Garrett Bull made the state, in last spring’s track championships, Andrew broke his arm and wasn’t able to compete.

“I was excited to watch him run the 200 in the state meet,” he said about Garrett getting to compete. “I thought that was pretty awesome.”

Somebody has to finish first

In both sets of the cross country identical twins, one is almost always faster than the other – and in the Thomases’ case, it’s usually Alec. Aaron, however, is pretty fast on his own and has run in the fifth position in both his freshman and sophomore seasons for the Region 6-AAA champion Bruins.

“That's my brother,” said Aaron, noting he doesn’t begrudge his twin’s speed. “… I like to do workouts with him to try to get better. I have to accept and be positive of what I can and can't do. I work hard and i try to beat him.”

While Nathan joins with fellow senior Paul Stuart to give the Bruins a solid 1-2 with chances to win the individual medal, even the oldest brother has come in behind Alec.

“In the last meet Alec beat me in the regions, and I thought it would be upsetting to me,” Nathan said. “But he's worked for it and I knew that we both raced well.”

While many guys might have one little brother on their trail, Nathan has two trying to get out of his shadow.

“It's definitely a big motivator having someone breathing down your neck all the time,” Nathan said. “It’s also fun having them as training partners. It's a whole different thing when running by yourself than running with two other people who are constantly pushing you.”

Aaron was always bigger than Alec till like second or third grade, but now Alec’s been taller and a little heavier since then. But Alec doesn’t know why he usually wins in a footrace with his twin: “I've pretty much always sort of beat him; I have no idea what it is.”

Brentwood Academy's Garrett Bull

Nathan says while he thinks sometimes it might bother Aaron to not be faster than Alec, he doesn’t believe Aaron feels inferior about it. “He knows how he can contribute to team,” Nathan said. “He is a different person. Even though biologically he should be similar, he's still a different person that has different strengths.”

Garrett and Andrew Bull are Brentwood Academy’s top two runners, with Garrett’s personal record in 16:04 and Andrew’s 16:44 – so less than a minute apart. Earlier this year Garrett placed 17th at the Jesse Owens race in Alabama, his biggest race so far.

Having a twin has built-in advantages for sure when it comes to training, Andrew added: “It's always good to have someone to run with.”

While they might train together at home, during a race they pace with different people, Andrew said. Garrett’s just always been the faster runner.

 “They each have a little bit different style in the way they run – I'm not a runner, but they carry themselves somewhat differently,” said Don Bull, Andrew and Garrett’s father.

He said they aren’t super competitive with each other either.

“They both want to do the best they can, and there doesn't seem to be hard feelings about one finishing ahead of the other,” their dad said. “Really it's just like everything else in life, they've always been pretty close and I think they are in that. They really enjoy being on the same team and have great guys to be around.”

Telling twins apart 

Aaron and Alec Thomas played school basketball up until last season, played soccer as well, and will continue playing rec basketball. In soccer, they both were midfielders, while in hoops one will play point and the other shooting guard but swap out some.

Alec said he thinks it’s more a myth that twins can communicate better, kind of like having a sixth sense about each other. But he said there are advantages.

“It's the same as any other person, we don't have any extra senses, I can't tell what he's going to do or anything,” Alec said. “It definitely helps that I know his strengths and weaknesses ... and that sort of helps me to know what he does best. I'm with him so much, I see what he does all the time.”

The Bull brothers tried soccer a couple of years ago, but played different positions.

“We communicated pretty well, but it took us a while to get the hang of soccer,” Andrew said. “I guess I prefer running. I just like to compete and push myself to the limit and see what i can do.”

People watching BHS races have picked up on Aaron and Alec’s kinship, yelling cheers to “Go twins!” The Thomas twins have also noticed the Bull brothers at a couple of races and chatted briefly.

Garrett says some people say he and Andrew talk differently, but other than that it’s hard for many people to tell then apart. “I just tell they have to be around me a while to figure it out,” Garrett said.

BA's Andrew Bull

 However, he admits “that people that have known me for a long time mixing us up kind of gets on my nerves.”

Alec has a scar on his forehead from when he was 3, and that’s how they tell most people to differentiate between them. He’s also about an inch taller, and his hair is usually shorter.

Nathan said it’s kind of a weird thing that it comes natural to him to tell his two brothers apart. He admitted his brothers were annoying and he’d get frustrated when they were in middle school, but now he’s having fun having them around including on the team.

 “It's really cool having two twin brothers on the team,” Nathan said. “It definitely helps having three of the top five being in the family. It helps impact the tone and mentality as a team sport, which isn't something you normally have in the sport of running.”

And Brentwood High’s other top runner, regional champ Paul Stuart, has been running cross country with Nathan at Brentwood Middle and BHS since 7th grade.

“He’s been a constant, my training partner,” Nathan said. “He’s not quite a brother but we’re the best combo, we’re similar in our times and we’ve always been around each other, pushing each other, keying off each other … We have team success because of that rivalry in a good way.”

Kind of like having a twin.