Fantastic Finish

Based on his father\'s success as a distance runner in high school and college, it would be easy to assume that Kevin Zelenak was born to run.

Zelenak, a senior at Black Hills High School, won the 3,200 meters in electrifying fashion at the Class 3A state championships in Pasco last weekend, punctuating an already outstanding high school career.

Zelenak\'s winning time qualified him to run in two additional events this spring: the Brooks Meet of Champions Friday and Saturday at Lewis and Clark College in Portland and the Nike Outdoor Nationals June 15-17 at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, N.C.

When confronted with the notion that he might have been destined for greatness, Zelenak seemed a bit uneasy.

\"There\'s genetics to it,\" he said, then paused.

Kevin\'s father, George, went to the state meet as a distance runner at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma and reached the NAIA nationals three times as a marathoner for Whitman College in Walla Walla.

In the spring of 2004, there was a last-minute need for a distance coach for the Black Hills track team, and George Zelenak volunteered to help. He stayed on to become the head cross country coach, a position in which he plans to continue next season.

George Zelenak also coached the distance runners during the 2005 track season, but he relinquished those duties for Kevin\'s senior track season.

That way, he and his son could talk about running as a father and son.

\"I think George enjoyed this year a whole lot more,\" said Black Hills track coach Terry Scott, who can empathize with the senior Zelenak after coaching his own daughter, Whitney, on the track team.

Running for his dad created some challenges for Kevin, the apple who didn\'t fall too far from the tree.

\"It took getting used to,\" the younger Zelenak said. \"When we were at home, he was \'Dad.\' At track or cross country, he was \'Coach.\' We had to clarify the roles a little bit.\"

As for the elder Zelenak, the challenges seemed to be more of a vicarious nature.

\"I really enjoyed (coaching my son) initially, getting him started,\" he said. \"As he developed, I had a hard time letting him go and become his own runner.\"

The runner that Kevin Zelenak has become is impressive in his own right. Last track season, he finished second to Kelso senior Chris Rodriguez in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the Southwest District meet. In the state meet that followed, Zelenak mustered a ferocious comeback to finish seventh in the 3,200 meters -- one place and a few tenths of a second ahead of Rodriguez.

This season, though, Zelenak was second to none.

At the district meet in Vancouver, he won both the 1,600 and 3,200, his first district titles. In the 3,200 at state, Zelenak and Bellingham\'s Chris Kwiatkowski pulled away from the pack with about 300 meters to go. The two battled in a physical push to the finish; at one point, with the two runners tangled up, Zelenak was nearly forced off the track.

Zelenak and Kwiatkowski finished almost in a dead heat, but Kwiatkowski, who initiated most of the contact, was later disqualified.

Despite the time lost to jockeying for position, Zelenak posted a personal best time of 9 minutes, 12.5 seconds. The 3,200, Zelenak\'s signature event, was the culmination of years of work and expectation. As a result, he didn\'t have much left in the tank for Saturday\'s 1,600.

\"I was kinda out of it,\" Zelenak said of the 1,600, in which he finished last of 16 runners. \"All four years of high school kind of climaxed the night before, so I was just kind of out there running it.\"

While Saturday\'s last-place finish was a rare occasion on which Zelenak let down his guard, it is overshadowed by the magnitude of Friday\'s narrow victory. It is the late surge from the pack and the spirited finish with Kwiatkowski that best illustrates Zelenak\'s refuse-to-lose attitude.

\"I\'m pretty self-driven,\" Zelenak said. \"I\'m really competitive.\"

That drive, coupled with a tremendous work ethic, has not always generated positive results.

\"(Kevin\'s) biggest attribute and biggest fault is he works very hard,\" Scott said. \"That\'s kind of a double-edged sword.\"

Throughout his high school career, Zelenak has battled through a list of injuries that reads like a horror story for runners: shin splints, a stress fracture and tendinitis in his Achilles.

It\'s taken a while, but Zelenak has learned his lesson about over-training.

\"He\'s become much more aware of his body,\" the elder Zelenak noted.

Kevin\'s tenacious personality would not allow him to quit, though, and he used time off of his feet refining his mechanics for when he could get back on them. This fall, in the midst of a bout with shin splints during cross country season, Zelenak endured more than three weeks without running on land. In lieu of traditional workouts, he jumped in the pool and used a device that allowed him to simulate running in the water.

Zelenak hopes that his hard work will translate into success at the next level of competitive running.

He plans to attend the University of Portland, where he will major in biology and study kinesiology.

Zelenak will join 2002 Olympia High graduate John Moore on a Portland cross country team that finished ninth at the NCAA Division I championships last season. He also will participate on the track team, which according to Zelenak, is primarily focused on distance running.

Having already been offered a partial academic scholarship, Zelenak was informed last weekend by Portland cross country and track and field coach, Rob Conner, that the paperwork for an athletic scholarship was in the mail. Zelenak estimated the running scholarship to be worth about $10,000 per year.

George Zelenak is excited to see what his son can do in the years to come.

\"He\'s just getting started,\" he said. \"The best years for distance runners are in their late 20s or early 30s.\"

Kevin Hayward is a freelance writer from Olympia. He can be reached at khay_84@hotmail.com.

Enlarge Photo
Tony Overman/The Olympian
Black Hills senior Kevin Zelenak competes in the boys 1,600 meters on Saturday at the 3A state championship meet. Zelenak, who won the 3,200 on Friday, is The Olympian\'s All-Area Boys Track Athlete of the Year.
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