**Original Article Written For Dyestat (Unpublished)**
Defending Idaho 5A state champion Zac Magee of Coeur D’Alene continued his comeback season with much success; running the Yamamoto Invitational on Maui, he clinched both the wins in the 400m in his preliminary round and final by a large margin.
“I’m here for my spring break, and it was a bummer because I had a meet today back where I’m from but I obviously would have missed it. So I signed up for this meet kind of last minute.”
On Friday the 24th, Zac sped out of the blocks and immediately created a gap; a gap which only increased as the race went on as by the end, he finished in 50.78-nearly 40 meters ahead of the nearest competitor. The next day, in the 400m final, he once again finished far ahead of the next contender, running 50.38 to win gold ahead of fellow mainlander Sam Prevost who hails from Canada and ran 52.28. Later in the night, Zac won yet another gold in the 200m in 22.84.
Both of the marks Zac set last weekend in the 400 were the fastest clocked on Maui in at least three seasons. Yet, they were still far off from his lifetime PR of 48.49, or his 49.18 season’s best for that matter.
“The weather here is really hot, humid, and windy so my times weren’t as fast as I’m used to; but it still felt pretty good.”
Looking to the 2017 season and the potential it holds, Magee eyes the state championship for the chance at repeating his first place finish from last year; which was an intense final where four people finished nearly within half a second of each other. Until then, he has four or five more meets to prepare.
“There’s actually a guy right now running times pretty close to my PR, so I have to up my game if I want to be able to have a shot at another state title.”
Supposedly Zac thinks this season to be his brightest yet, he spent most of the off season training to make sure he would be able to pick up from where he left off, and run fast marks from the start of 2017.
In the past he would train with his Father late after school at the track, choosing to forgo the school’s practices. As the months passed by he shifted more to conduct his training with his team who-by then-had acquired a new Olympic level Coach. His family continued being supporting factors in his high school career, and his Father went on to volunteer for his track team as the Assistant Coach.
As a child he began running from his middle school years, mostly jogging and doing runs for recreational purposes with his father. His Dad would set out a certain weekly mileage which he would try to hit-but would sometimes miss here and there. What made him such an effective athlete from a young age however, was how every few weeks his father would put on a mile time trial where he would gauge his overall fitness and prove that he had actually been running. He would hit marks that were well for his age, and this cycle would continue on until he seriously entered the sport in his freshman year.
Zac started out as a distance runner; running cross country as his main sport for 9th and 10th grade. When track season came around he focused on the 800m, clocking decent times which qualified him for his first state championship where he finished in 13th place with a new PR of 1:59.76.
When track season once again rolled around the next year, he was still a middle distance runner-but found the event less effective as the year before. In the prior cross country season he had noticed that his endurance was lacking, but his speed was superior to most others on his team (even some of the seniors.)
“I started seeing that I was a little stockier, and quicker than most of the cross country runners. So I said that this was it for me and I got into track.”
This caused him to try his luck at the shorter distances where he found much success in the 400m. This year the 400 was his main event and the only one he qualified for the state championships in; he ultimately finished in 13th again with a time of 52.07.
From then on his progress in the event was linear, his times got lower as the season continued and he qualified yet again for states. This time, he ran a fast new PR of 48.49 for first in the 400, and then came back later to finish fourth in the 200 in 22.70.
Heading into the future, Zac looks to continue his education and track career in College. He is currently conflicted on his choice of a school; going back and forth between institutions such as Brown University-which he earned a scholarship for-and Northwest Nazarene University. Until then, he hopes to run fast times this season and even try his hand at the 800m again to pursue the endurance aspect of the event.
