Cole Focused On State Meet Cda Senior Bent On Erasing Bad Memory From ‘94

A biblical parable about building a home best describes Coeur d’Alene High School cross country runner Chris Cole’s season last year.

According to the allegory, a wise man builds his house upon rock. A foolish man builds his house upon sand.

Everything seemed to be going along fine for Cole last year. He easily qualified for state and was looking for no worse than a top-20 finish.

That’s when Cole’s proverbial house collapsed and he finished a distant 35th, one place worse than his finish at state the previous year as a sophomore.

“It was my worse time of the year,” Cole said. “I was really disappointed, but there were a lot of reasons for it. The most important factor was I raced mountain bikes all summer and came into the season without a running base. You use totally different muscles when you mountain bike and run.”

Cole said he was mentally and physically drained before the state meet.

A month after the season, when he had finally worked his way into running shape, he posted a time of 16 minutes, 39 seconds at the Footlocker race in Fresno, Calif. He finished 15th among the junior class.

Cole approached his senior season much more focused, making sure he developed a proper running foundation.

It definitely showed in a dual Tuesday against Lake City at Farragut State Park.

Three Lake City runners kept pace with Cole through the 1-mile mark of the 3.1-mile race, but Cole almost leisurely pulled away to finish 52 seconds ahead of LC’s Ryan Scharnhorst and Bryce Knight.

Cole’s time of 17:44, in fact, was just 8 seconds off his mark last year at the faster-paced Farragut Invitational.

“I used an experimental strategy and ran a slow first mile,” Cole said. “I was running my own race within a race.”

That will happen often when Cole squares off against North Idaho A-1 opponents.

Cole’s stiffest competition will come from Sandpoint senior Kyle Delamarter, who finished an impressive 13th at state last year.

Cole isn’t thinking about a particular place at state.

“I’ll be more concerned about the competition than with a place,” he said. “If I race well against the people then I’ll place high.”

Most of the top area runners will compete at the Farragut Invitational Sept. 23.

Here’s a look at the top A-1 and A-2 runners and teams in the region. State will be Oct. 28 at Pinecrest Golf Course in Idaho Falls.

A-1

Ten of the top 11 state runners graduated, opening the door for Cole and Delamarter to challenge for top honors.

Sandpoint’s boys easily captured a regional championship last year. Though the Bulldogs’ top runners have graduated (Preston Martin, third, and Chris Blood, seventh), they return a strong nucleus.

Delamarter leads a tight pack made up of several strong runners from last year’s top junior varsity team in the area.

The team that will challenge Sandpoint is Lake City, which, like Sandpoint, features a tight pack of runners.

Sandpoint’s girls, led by junior Emily Baker and senior Saskia Neher, will be back to defend their regional title.

A-2

Same song, different year.

Moscow’s boys and girls should easily defend district titles and hope to have better showings at state.

Among the top returning girls are Bears senior Rachel Ferguson, who finished third at state, and the Bonners Ferry tandem of senior Joy Bucher and sophomore Lany Dowell.

Moscow senior Tony Smith will set the pace among the boys. Smith, who finished sixth at state, is the top returning A-2 runner in the state. His closest competition should come from teammate Brandon Workman.

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