Kyle Delamarter Sandpoint Year: Senior Sport: Cross Country

Kyle Delamarter may be a 17-year-old Sandpoint High School senior, but “the little boy in him comes forth all the time,” said Bulldogs cross country coach Cheryl Klein.

“He is someone the team enjoys. He doesn’t take his leadership or successes too seriously. His philosophy is ‘If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it.”’

Delamarter was happy with a fifth-place finish among 94 runners over the weekend in the Bob Firman Invitational in Boise, but “I’m kinda mad,” he added.

Delamarter’s time of 16 minutes, 40 seconds over the 3.1-mile course was one-tenth of a second off his personal best.

“What was going through my mind at the end of the race, I wanted to beat 17 minutes,” the 3.9 student said. “I wish I had beat the other kid in front of me now.”

Delamarter established his personal best at the 1994 State A-1 meet. He collected all-state honors with 13th place, and helped Sandpoint to the third place.

“One outstanding characteristic about Kyle is he’s very intelligent in his approach to everything he does,” Klein said. “It’s well thought out. He knows his own strengths, and he does an excellent job assessing those strengths.

“He’s got tremendous endurance and ability to utilize his leg speed late in the race far more so than most runners.”

A short hill, along with sandy terrain which created loose footing, made Delamarter’s showing in Boise even more impressive, Klein observed.

“Kyle certainly demonstrated this weekend that he can run with the best,” Klein said.

Delamarter positions himself in the middle of the pack early in a race.

“After the first minute of a race, that’s when I start to run harder,” Delamarter said. “I just want to hear people breathing harder, like they’re being tortured. My breathing is as hard, but it boosts me. I feel like I can handle the race better. I am going to last longer.”

Delamarter’s father, Frank, introduced him to running at the age of 5.

His style is “more of a glide than actually running,” Delamarter said. “I kinda like to bounce off my toes a lot. No matter how tired I am, I always sprint as hard as I can the last 200 meters.”

Three races remain in the Bulldogs season, including the Region I meet at Farragut State Park on Oct. 21 and state in Idaho Falls on Oct. 28.

“I think about that every day,” Delamarter said. “I want to make the best of it, too.”

In addition to racing smarter, Delamarter is concentrating now on position workouts, visualizing each movement correctly.

“For me, cross country is not as much the competition, it’s just me having a good time,” he said.

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