STATE CROSS COUNTRY: Prepared to prove it ... Coeur d'Alene boys, ranked 10th nationally, aim for first state title since 2011 on Saturday in Pocatello

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

As Coeur d’Alene High sophomore Mitchell Rietze describes, rankings don’t make much of a difference until you show it somewhere.

Well, here’s your chance.

The Viking boys cross country team, ranked 10th nationally by DyeStat, will take aim at the program’s first state 5A title since 2011 when they take to the course at the Portneuf Wellness Center in Pocatello on Saturday.

“We’ve seen them, but really don’t pay much attention to it,” junior Zack Cervi-Skinner said of the rankings. “It’s all just a hypothetical right now. Really, it just comes down to us on race day to run like we’ve been training all year and give it our best. We’ll do what we have to do.”

As senior Jacob King describes, it’s easy to get caught up in the talk.

“We really don’t look at the rankings,” King said. “We’re trying not to judge ourselves too harshly on that. But it’s fun to see where we’re at and be in the spirit of the whole thing. It’s cool to see.”

“For me, I don’t really pay attention to it,” Rietze said. “To be ranked, it doesn’t really matter until you show it. We’ll see what happens.”

SO FAR, Coeur d’Alene has shown plenty this fall, with team titles at the Mountain West Invitational in Missoula and the Nike Hole in the Wall Invitational at Lakewood High in Arlington, Wash.

“We were projected to do well at the Nike meet, but we were also going against Jesuit (of Portland), and they’re one of the best teams in the northwest,” junior Max Cervi-Skinner said. “They’re one of the top 10 programs in the country, and we won. So after that, it was a feeling like, ‘Wow, we are what people think we are.’”

“Being able to win at that meet was awesome,” senior Lachlan May said. “The rankings, it’s a lot of fun to see our name up there with a lot of really good teams. People can say what they want, but we just don’t think about it too much. We just try to go out and run our race.”

At that meet, May (third), Max Cervi-Skinner (seventh) and King (15th) were in the top 20, with freshman Wyatt Carr 21st.

“Everything just worked out super well for me at least, as well as the team,” Carr said. “We just performed really well.”

Rietze felt something special brewing after the Mountain West meet in September.

“I think that was a big eye-opener for us and the rest of the team,” said Rietze of the win in the 64-team meet. “I think it was there that we realized we’re a really good team and we’re capable of winning any meet we enter.”

While Max Cervi-Skinner, King and May have been among the top three finishers in most of the team’s meets this year, it really could be anyone to make a move toward the top.

“Max and Lachlan are the guys that I run with especially,” King said. “We run and train together and really race off each other. There’s been three different meets where we’ve all beaten each other, and that’s really cool to have that. We run together, and whoever can pull it off that day, we’re happy for them.”

Max Cervi-Skinner won the 13-14-year old Junior Olympic title in 2020, helping lead the North Idaho Cross Country team to a team title alongside Zack Cervi-Skinner and Kyle Rohlinger.

"It was a great memory for sure," Max Cervi-Skinner said. "To do that, I think really lit a fire in all of us to build on it and everyone else really bought into that. We've just continued to build from that moment."

PREPARING FOR the conditions this week, with altitude and weather likely to change, has been a steady climb throughout the season.

“The way we train and go on runs together, we’ve just tried to stay consistent,” junior Kyle Rohlinger said. “We usually practice after school and during the summer, we’re practicing at 7:30 in the morning. On Mondays, we’ve got a late start at school on those days, so we’ll try to go run as a group sometimes and do double days to get the miles in.”

So, has it made a difference?

“It has helped, maybe more so in the offseason, to get that mileage in,” Rohlinger said. “It’s just another thing we’ve done to stay super consistent and really stay on track.”

“I’ve really learned a lot about the commitment to the sport from these upperclassmen,” Rietze said. “You’re only as fast as you are fit. From that, you can grow as a team.”

“The varsity guys, we’ve been practicing together for the last several months,” junior Zack Cervi-Skinner said. “That team aspect has really drawn us closer together and allowed us to push each other in the other bigger race scenarios.”

In cross country, team points are determined through a runner’s finishing spot by the top five finishers — one point for first, two for second, etc. At regionals, Coeur d’Alene not only had the top five finishers to come in with 15 points — a perfect score — but actually had all seven runners finish 1-7.

“We’ve all just kind of ran off of each other,” King said. “The top three guys have all worked off each other and sometimes will finish in different order in each race. This isn’t an individual sport. It’s a team sport and I’ve never had a better testimony of that until this year. It’s really a team sport.”

In the past two seasons, Coeur d’Alene has placed third (2022 at Lewiston Orchards) and eighth (2021 at Eagle Island State Park) at the state meet.

King was the top Coeur d'Alene finisher in 2021, in 21st. In 2022, Max Cervi-Skinner was third, May fourth, Zack Cervi-Skinner 11th and King 13th at state. 

“It definitely took some work, but we were lucky to have a lot of talented kids and guys that have been friends for a really long time,” King said. “That really helped a lot. It makes running together a lot easier for us. We’re definitely lucky to have each other.”

Coeur d’Alene did not qualify its boys team in 2020, the last time the state meet was held in Pocatello.

“This group has put the time and tough work in,” Coeur d’Alene coach Cathy Compton said. “We had a tough workout on Tuesday, and the boys just nailed it. The workouts and their muscle memory is great and it’s cool to have a group that can do that.”

Coeur d’Alene’s last boys title came in 2011 at Eagle Island State Park. That year, Coeur d’Alene had five boys finish in the top 20.

Compton doesn’t feel that the altitude and cold weather will figure to be a factor this week for her squad.

Pocatello is 4,462 feet above sea level, compared to 2,188 in Coeur d'Alene.

“It’s really not necessary to worry about the altitude because everyone has to adjust to it as well,” Compton said. “We’ve won in some horrible conditions before, and it’s going to come down to who comes out to compete and perseveres in tough conditions. And I think we’re ready.”

THIS SUMMER, members of the Coeur d’Alene team attended a week-long camp in Pocatello.

“It’s not so much of a difference that anyone really noticed it,” May said. “I don’t think it will make a difference on race day.”

“It’s going to take all of us,” King said. “We’ve been training and running all season for this, so we know we can do it. We just have to not give in to the weakness and trust each other with what we’re doing.”

“They’re a super smart group, but young at heart,” Compton said. “They take things very seriously, but have a good vibe to them right now. They’ve prepared for this week all summer long with different high-end camps and have really built up to this. They’ve done a good job of building each other up.”

Maybe the biggest wild card in the group is Rohlinger, who won the Region 1 title last week at Farragut State Park in Athol as the school’s seventh runner.

“I really don’t have a lot of pressure on me, but my goal is to pass as many guys as I can,” Rohlinger said. “It’s going to be a great opportunity. I just try to support our guys as much as possible, run with them as I can during the race and do my best.”

“We’re ready to prove that a small team out of Idaho can do more than most people expect,” Max Cervi-Skinner said. “We know we can do it at state, and know that there’s always going to be a little bit of pressure and good competition there. But we’re going down to compete, try our best and see what happens.”

“They support each other so much that bonding and commitment to each other has been great to see,” Compton said. “The biggest thing is that they’ve said you’re not on your own in this, and everyone is there for each other. It’s neat to get a group that is there for each other at the same time, and they take it seriously. The rankings, expectations, it doesn’t seem to stress them out. It’s pretty cool.”

The boys also trust in Compton, who led the Viking girls to team titles in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2014, as well as the boys title in 2011.

“We’re still doing those same traditions that we’ve been doing year after year,” Zack Cervi-Skinner said. “We’ve just been doing the same thing, running in a pack and staying together on the course. Not much has changed from the way we approach things now or then.”

Like this year’s group, the 2010 boys were third at state before breaking through in 2011.

Not that they’re thinking about that.