Endicott makes mark on cross country sesason

Mustangs gallop, but Kohl Endicott runs.
Endicott will  represent the Iola High Mustangs cross country team at the Class 4A State Meet Saturday in Wamego. It’s been since 2012 when the Mustangs have had a runner in the state meet.
Endicott made his way by placing 12th at Garnett’s Class 4A Regional meet last Saturday. Endicott was one of five individual runners to qualify for state. The top three teams at Regionals automatically qualify as a whole.
Endicott completed the 5-kilometer race in 18 minutes, 44 seconds. It was the third time during the season he had run the course.
“I thought I did pretty well since it’s my senior year,” Endicott said. “I’m glad I have the opportunity to go to state during my last year of running cross country in high school.”
Endicott said he felt the season went by fast. Endicott won four races over the course of the season — three of the wins came over a three-week span. The last race he won came at the Pioneer League Meet in Garnett a week prior to regionals.
Now, Endicott will be heading for the final meet of his high school career: The Class 4A State Meet in Wamego this Saturday.
“I just want to run as hard as I can because it will be my last race in high school,” Endicott said.
Cross country coach Marv Smith said his “fast” season has come from being consistent.
“I think the reason he’s been that consistent is because of the way that we practice,” Smith said. “He comes to practice every day, to get a full tonal workout. He got in good shape before the season, had success early and continued to push that.”
According to Smith, Endicott had a good chance at making it to the state tournament last season. However, Endicott struggled at the regional.
“He was running very well until the one and a half mile mark — he was right up their with the leaders,” Smith said. “But, he got something called a ‘side stitch.’ Once you get one of those, it pretty much does you in.”
Smith said that a “side stitch” is a bubble of air that forms underneath a person’s diaphragm. The hotter a runner’s body becomes, the bigger the bubble gets.
Endicott ended up in 23rd place during last season’s regional.
“It was a terribly disappointing moment because we were confident he would have success,” Smith said.
This year, Smith wanted Endicott to go easy on himself at regionals and run fast enough to qualify for state, but not do too much more. During the entire race, Smith kept track of Endicott to keep him abreast of his position. Endicott held onto the third qualifying spot the entire race.
For Saturday’s state meet, Smith projects Endicott will fall between the top 30-40 runners to finish.
“He doesn’t have the leg speed. You take some of those guys that have good leg speed and run during the summer, they put up some really outstanding times,” Smith said.
“The thing that worries me the most is that we don’t have the type of terrain for conditioning that you need in Wamego. It’s just hills and hills and hills.”
 To train for the hilly course, Smith has had Endicott run “boomerangs” on a hill at the Anderson County Country Club. Endicott runs up the hill and back down, over and over.
“Southeast Kansas is just not very conducive for training for hilly cross country courses,” Smith said.
Endicott runs at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Class 4A State Meet in Wamego. Endicott said that to be a cross country runner, “you’ve just got to love competing and love running hard.”
It will take one last, great run for Endicott to finish his high school career strong.