THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, April 15, 2016
Lake City High senior Zack Holbrook got accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in December, was named the school’s valedictorian in March with a 4.5 grade-point average and also qualified for last season’s state 5A track and field meet at Dona Larsen Park in Boise.
Other than that, this 18-year-old has been a massive slacker. Kidding, folks.
What Holbrook is dead serious about, at least at this point, is majoring in bioengineering at MIT, one of the most prestigious universities on the planet.
“I’m looking at getting into prosthetic engineering,” Holbrook said. “It uses biomechanical engineering, with mechanical arms and hands. There are prosthetic limbs connected to nervous systems. Being accepted also took a lot of stress off me, it was super exciting.”
Holbrook also wants to walk on to both the MIT track and cross country teams. At the 2014 state 5A cross country meet, he finished 45th with a 3.1-mile time of 17:07.01. At last season’s state track meet, Holbrook was on a 4x800-meter relay team that finished seventh. He also improved over time, as he was the No. 6 cross country runner as a sophomore, No. 3 as a junior and he was set to become the No. 1 runner competing with Max Evans this past fall, before injuries limited his season to four races.
“I think I have a decent shot at making it to their teams,” Holbrook said. “When I was running the Coeur d’Alene Triathlon (in August), I aggravated my foot. It turned out there was liquid pulling in my bone marrow of my left foot, so I needed to have it checked out.”
Holbrook’s cross country coach and distance track coach at Lake City, Heather Harmon-Reed, likes his chances of making onto the MIT roster.
“I think he has a shot at their teams,” Harmon-Reed said. “Especially since they have the 5K and 10K runs at the collegiate level. Regardless, Zack will continue to run since he loves it so much.”
SINCE FIFTH grade, Holbrook knew he was pretty darn good at solving math problems.
“We had these things called math minutes in class,” Holbrook said. “We had to quickly come up with answers to math problems.”
At math competitions at North Idaho College in both 2013 as a sophomore and last year as a senior, Holbrook finished third.
Holbrook’s parents, Lee and Charlene, moved from Fresno to Coeur d’Alene when Holbrook was a bit older than 1. He also has a younger brother, Jake Holbrook, who is a sophomore at Lake City and plays football and baseball. Lee is a paramedic who works for the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and Charlene is a communications director for the Post Falls Police Department.
“They moved here, they have relatives around here and they liked the overall environment,” Zack said.
Holbrook’s personal-best time in the 1,600 is 4:37.35 at last year’s 5A Region meet and 10:04 last season in the 3,200. His goals this season are breaking the 4:30 mark in the 1,600 and 10 minutes in the 3,200. This season, he ran a 4:59.77 in the 1,600 on April 12 at an IEL in Sandpoint. Last season, he won the 1,600 run at the District 1 All-Star Meet in Post Falls (4:41.71) and was on a winning 4x800 relay team at the Christina Finney Relays.
“It was really cool to go to state,” Holbrook said of the track meet. “I was dedicated to track.”
Harmon-Reed is also one of Holbrook’s fans.
“I have been in awe of the academic load that he has juggled,” she said. “He has always taken the advanced classes.”
As with quite a few seniors at Lake City, Holbrook is in front of the pack in terms of leadership, as he’s a team captain.
“He leads by example and by encouraging his teammates,” Harmon-Reed said. “He is one of our top distance runners and I am excited to see what he does over the next few weeks.”
Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25