PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles Roughrider Lauren Larson possibly had some state championships taken away from her by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, over the past year, Larson, who is one of the best long-distance runners in the state (along with Sequim’s Riley Pyeatt), has kept her head up, she’s stayed out on the trails and she’s raring to get back into competition, beginning Saturday as the Roughriders travel for a meet in Silverdale. This is the first prep sporting event held for North Olympic Peninsula student-athletes since last March.
“I’m excited to see everyone again at the track,” she said.
How has Larson been spending the past year, waiting to compete again?
“I’ve been doing a lot of running,” she said. “I’m actually pretty consistently, without running in races, putting in higher mileage.”
Larson has been running some virtual Nike races and traveled to Indiana to compete in a big high school cross country meet there featuring girls from all over the nation.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear Larson will get a chance to compete at state in cross country in her senior year, though there is hope for a state track and field meet in the summer.
In addition to staying physically fit, Larson credits getting outdoors to go running every day with helping her cope emotionally with the long shutdown of sports caused by COVID-19.
“Running for me has really helped me mentally and emotionally,” she said.
And something scary for her competitors? Larson’s times in her virtual races, posted on Athletic.net, have been steadily dropping. She was between 18 minutes, 22 seconds and 20 minutes in 5K races between September and November, finishing in the top 10 in five out of seven races. Then, on Nov. 8, she ran an 18:01.6 in a virtual run. On Nov. 23, she ran 18:01.7. How good is that time? Last year, when she finished fifth in the state in the 2A championships, she posted a time of 18:41.2.
Larson also competed in the XC Town USA high school meet in Terre Haute, Ind., in November, finishing 48th among some top club runners.
Larson and her teammates practice together wearing masks and will be competing while wearing masks. She isn’t wild about the idea.
“It’s …. interesting,” she said. “It’s definitely not ideal. You do what you have to do,” she said.
Larson’s track record was amazing leading up to the pandemic and she definitely had a chance for some state titles in 2020. She won eight 5K cross country races her freshman, sophomore and junior years and finished second in six more races. She won an Olympic League 2A championship, won a West-Central District III championship and finished fifth at state in 2019. She was also fourth at state in 2018 and 10th at state in 2017.
Meanwhile, in track and field, she has been even more dominating. She won the 800 meters six times her junior year (with league and district championships) and finished second at the state 2A track and field championships, she won the 1,600 seven times with a district and league championships, then finished third in the state in this event. And in the 3,200, she won three times with league and district championships then finished second at state.
Throw in a pair of 4×400 victories and that is 18 first-place track and field finishes. She has six more first-place track and field finishes from her sophomore and freshman years and three more in steeplechase and 3,000 meters for a total of 27 first-place finishes in her high school track career.
Many good athletes on the Olympic Peninsula go on to play college sports, but few are able to make the big leap to a Division 1A university program. Larson also knocked that off her accomplishment list this past year, signing to run track and cross country at Boise State University, a member of the Mountain West Conference.
Larson said it was a little weird because most years, students get to physically visit college campuses. “Everything for me was virtual,” she said.
When Larson is done with cross country, she would like to concentrate on the 800 meters in track and is hoping she gets the chance to compete at state in track with hopefully lower COVID-19 numbers in late spring.
In addition to Port Angeles’ dual with Klahowya, Sequim will be competing against Olympic while East Jefferson, a combined Port Townsend-Chimacum team, will be competing against Kingston. All of these races are being held in Silverdale.
