La Center boys distance runners break school records this season

As the La Center High track team’s season winds down, the boys are celebrating a successful season with two school records broken.

The La Center boys 4x800-meter relay team broke the La Center High School record at the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays in April with a time of 8 minutes and 24.7 seconds and broke the distance medley relay school record earlier this season at the Tiger Invite in March with a time of 11:19.

The Wildcats boys relay team consists of Brady Sypher, Anthony Larkin, Logan Hubler and Carter Sherry.

La Center track and field head coach Jill Cole said the team has had a strong cross country season.

“So we threw together these guys in the distance medley relay at the Tiger Invite because we knew we could run a pretty fast one and they broke the school record and then got to the Nike/Jesuit meet,” Cole said. “We knew we have some really strong 800 (meter) runners, and we knew we could run a really great 4 by 8, and so we were able to get in and then they came home and broke the school record again and broke it by a lot.”

A lot of offseason work went into preparing for this season, Cole said, with a couple of members staying in shape through basketball, and others running distances upward of 8 miles at a time.

For senior Anthony Larkin, the team’s success has meant a lot to him.

“It’s kind of crazy because this is my last year, so this is the last time I get to run with these guys,” Larkin said. “I might get to run with one of them in college, but we’ll see what happens. But it’s kind of crazy, and I’m very thankful for it because that puts my name along with these guys’ names in the school.”

Larkin signed his letter of intent to run for Whitworth University in Spokane in March.