Cole looks to improve on freshman times in senior campaign
ANSLEY - Over the last few years, there has been one girl who has been the staple of the South Loup distance runners in track. That girl has been Landyn Cole.
As a freshman, she was less than a second away from breaking the co-op’s record in the mile. It helped her qualify for state in 2018 in the 1,600-meter run. She did not get back down to her times from 2018 in 2019 but believes this year will be different after a successful first year of cross country where she qualified for state in Class D, becoming the first South Loup girl to do so.
“My freshman year I was .3 seconds away from getting the South Loup mile record,” Cole said. “My sophomore year I didn’t quite make it back down to that time, but after cross country with so many more miles under my belt and training this year I would really like to be able to break that mile record.”
Cole knows that she is going to have to continue to work hard to accomplish her goals. One good thing for her is she will have competition inside her own conference with Mullen who will help push her to do better. They have three distance runners who have experience qualifying for state in track and cross country.
“My whole high school career Mullen has had very tough competition in the distance aspect,” Cole said. “Competing against them you almost create a friendship with them even though they are your competitors. You know that they’re always going to be there and they’re always going to push you to be your best.”
According to Cole her interest in distance running began when she was in junior high. At that time, she competed in a track meet at Hershey and found that she had the talent to be a distance runner.
When I was younger, they always had the Hershey track meet and when I competed in it, I always did the longer events,” Cole said. “My parents always taught me that distance runners are made and it’s not as much genetics. I was not given the sprinting genes and I had to work hard, but I’m always up for a challenge.”
After missing last year due to COVID-19, Cole is excited to compete again. She stated one of the main things she is looking forward to is the relationships you create competing at track meets.
“I really missed track last year, because you really do create a lot of friendships,” Cole said. “Especially in the distance where you are running with the same group of girls after school every day. You create close bonds with those people and I definitely missed that last year.”
This season she also is looking to be a leader for the underclassmen for South Loup. With it being the freshman and sophomore’s first year competing, she is excited to see how they will do.
“I am excited to run with some of the underclassmen we have this year,” Cole said. “It’s the first year for the freshman and sophomore’s and I think it will be really exciting to compete with them and see how they do.”
After high school Cole plans on attending either the University of Nebraska-Lincoln or Colorado State University. While in college she plans on double majoring in political science and English with aspirations to one day go to Law School.