THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, May 20, 2016

Nearly 31 years after the Coeur d’Alene High school record in the 400-meter run was broken by Jim Gallagher back in May of 1985, with a time of 49.7 seconds at the state 5A track and field meet, Viking junior Zac Magee was the one to break it in Boise.

On April 8, at the Pulse Invitational at Centennial High at Boise, the Seattle-born Magee won with a time of 48.98 seconds. The next week, on April 16 at the Pasco Invitational in Pasco, Wash., he finished third (49.37). The person who finished first in that meet with a time of 48.47 seconds was Jake Ulrich of Eastmont (Wenatchee, Wash.), who according to the website Athletic.net is the top-ranked runner in the 400 in Washington.

“The moment I knew my time, I was pretty excited,” Magee said. “It was the most challenging meet I’ve been in. It didn’t feel like I ran that much faster than I did earlier this year. It felt pretty normal.”

The fact that Magee, who last Friday at the 5A Region 1 meet in Lewiston broke his own 400 record with a winning time of 48.64, was the one to break Gallagher’s record should come as no big surprise. According to Athletic.net, he is ranked No. 2 in the state in the 400. He’s also ninth in the state in the 200 (22.37), which he also ran in a winning time at regionals. He also runs in the 4x100 relay.

“The guy who’s No. 1, (Michael Slagowski of Rocky Mountain in Meridian, who has a time of 48.54) ran the 400 just for fun,” Magee said. “He usually runs the 800, the mile and the two-mile runs.”

Slagowski, a senior, is also ranked No. 1 in those runs, so he’s uh, probably getting a few looks from four-year university track and field programs.

Meanwhile, Magee has been preparing during the past few weeks for the state 5A track and field meet at Dona Larsen Park in Boise today and Saturday. For those of you keeping score at home, so to speak, the 400 preliminary run is after 3:30 p.m. MDT today and the finals are after 1 p.m. on Saturday. The top six-ranked runners besides Magee and Slagowski — Lake City junior Alex Ayers, Chase Armstrong of Emmett, James Love of Eagle and Elijah Gray of Capital — are all within one full second of each other, so it could be an even more competitive field than last season. To put it another way, Gallagher’s old time would put him in ninth today.

When he was in fourth grade, Magee’s family moved to Spokane and after seventh grade, they moved again to Coeur d’Alene.

COEUR d’ALENE track and field coach Justin Aguilar said Magee’s 400 time would put him second in Washington and fourth in Oregon. As of today, he is also tied for 196th in the U.S., according to Athletic.net. His time in regionals is .39 of a second off the time of the runner who is 100th.

“I tell our team, ‘If you guys work hard like Zac, the sky’s the limit,’” said Aguilar, who ran at Walla Walla (Wash.) High in the late 1990s. “He’s a good leader, he makes the rest of the kids work hard. He’s outstanding, he’s phenomenal, Zac is one of the best 400 runners I’ve ever seen.”

Magee has also been motivated by the fact that last year as a sophomore running at the state meet, he ran a time of 52.07 seconds and was 13th, even though he won regionals (50.82) and was second in the Rasmussen Invitational that year. Keep in mind, he was running a bit hurt.

“I had a sprained ankle jogging (on a trail on English Point near Hayden Lake) the Monday before state,” Magee said. “I just rolled it. I still competed. The timing was terrible, but it gave me motivation for this year, I was more determined.”

Magee’s main rival in Idaho besides Slagowski is just opposite U.S. 95. Ayers (49.10 at regionals) is trying to nip on Magee’s heels.

“I barely outleaned him at the finish line at regionals,” Magee said. “It’s definitely a friendly rivalry. I’m glad he’s gotten faster.”

Aguilar liked what he saw at regionals and at the Pasco Invite and likes Magee’s chances at state.

“At regionals, the Lake City pushed him the whole time,” Aguilar said. “It was the second time he was pushed (Pasco was the first). He had a great race. He knew the next time, ‘I’ve gotta push myself if I want to get to state.’ If he stays focused on the task at hand, runs his race, he should be fine. Everyone will gun for him, they’ll push him. He has a good kick around those turns. If he has the lead, you will not catch him.”

TIM HAAKENSON, the Vikings’ jumps coach for the past four years who was a long jumper and triple jumper for Cd’A and went on to play football at Oregon State, sees some similarities between Magee and Gallagher, who is 48 and lives in Ellensburg, Wash., working as a fly fisherman guide and instructor for Yakima River Fly Fishers. Haakenson said Gallagher is coming to Coeur d’Alene in June and the two could get together.

“I texted him and told him about it,” Haakenson said. “He was surprised his record still stood.”

Haakenson described how tough the 400 can be on runners.

“The 400 is the toughest event in track,” Haakenson said. “It’s a gut buster. You’ve gotta have guts and they both had it. You come around that one turn and the 150 meters that are left are the hardest part. The last 100, he (Magee) blows them away. It’s a really incredible field but he’s the odds-on favorite. He’ll be inundated with offers from schools.”

AS FAR as college choices, Magee does not have a clear idea just yet as to which college he might choose, although he has visited the University of Idaho, watching their track team’s practice. But the student with the 3.86 grade-point average does know he wants to get into civil engineering. He does enjoy playing basketball — he was a point guard on the junior varsity team last season — plus he likes to wakeboard and break out the snowboard when the winter weather on the track is uh, challenging.

“I like building things,” Magee said. “I like putting things in the right place. A cubicle job is not my thing. I’ll go anywhere who offers the best scholarship.”

Magee’s father, Mark Magee, owns A Action Tech, Inc., a carpet cleaning company located in Spokane for the past 15 years. His mother, Shadra Magee, is a stay-at-home mom.

Zac and his father have done the extra work required of some standout runners to get where they’ve been.

“We really started training the past few years,” Mark Magee said. “It’s really helped. He’ll have me run 200s, then 300s, then 400s. He rode his bike next to me a few times.”

As long as Zac gets on his horse and rides, so to speak, he has a chance at getting redemption by winning a state title.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @bourq25