Tyler Flannery’s skills as a distance runner were apparent at an early age.
“In the fifth grade I set the school record in the mile,” he said.
It wasn’t until his sophomore year at Auburn High School, however when he decided to concentrate exclusively on running, that his promise began to be realized.
Now a senior, Flannery, who will run for Seattle University next season, has cut a swathe through the South Puget Sound League North 4A competition, capturing first-place finishes in the 1,600 meters in each of the Trojans’ four dual meets.
This past Saturday, Flannery made another step toward his goal of qualifying for the state 4A track and field championships, taking second at the Bellevue High School Invitational with a personal-best 4 minutes, 25.19 seconds.
Flannery said it all begin at Mt. Baker Middle School.
“My middle school wrestling coach thought it would be a good idea for me to keep in shape for wrestling, so I started running,” he said. “I kept wrestling my first two years of high school but had injuries to my knees. Then I started focusing just on running.”
After dropping wrestling, Flannery begin training offseason with the Federal Way Track Club.
“If you’re expecting to come and run amazing times as a high school athlete without offseason training, you’re just going to get injured trying to push yourself,” Flannery said.
To minimize the possibility of injury and maximize his performance on the track, Flannery began a year-round base training regimen, where he conditions his body for running during the season by slowly ramping up the miles he runs each week.
“Base training gives you confidence and motivation to help you finish the season strong,” he said. “In high school track you just have eight weeks. You can’t build a runner in eight weeks. You need that extra time in the offseason.
“Right now I’m hitting about 65 miles a week,” Flannery continued. “I knew I’d do (well) coming into the season because I was finally hitting some decent miles, and after hitting 65-70 a week, I was confident I could pull out some good times during the season.”
In addition to his offseason work, Flannery credits the friendship and guidance of his Auburn distance coach and mentor, Greg Isham, for his success.
“He’s more than a coach,” Flannery said. “He’s my best friend, and he’s been there through everything. He’s my track coach, my cross country coach and my French teacher. We’ve traveled together and gone skiing together. You kind of need someone to look up to in high school, and he’s proved the backbone of my training.”
This year Flannery’s commitment to running earned him a scholarship to attend and run at Seattle U.
“I was pretty stoked. I felt like it was the right fit for me,” he said. “My goal from my freshman year was just to run in college. After I started to get better I was hoping for the scholarship to help my parents out with the money for college.”
Academically, the switch to college shouldn’t be much of a problem for Flannery, who maintains a 4.0 GPA.
“It all comes from running. I can always bring it back to running,” Flannery said. “It helped to build my mental strength and confidence and taught me how to be good at school. It’s all really built off my running.”
For now, it’s all about making the most of his final year of prep competition.
“My goal right now is to make it to state,” said Flannery, who has competed in the state cross country championships but not the state track and field meet.
“If something goes wrong and I don’t make it, as long as I run about a 4:21 in the 1,600 and a 9:19 in the two-mile, I’ll be happy,” he said.
Flannery and the rest of the Auburn track and field team will compete at the Shoreline Invitational on Saturday before closing out the regular season against Curtis on May 2. The team competes in the SPSL League Meet on May 8 and 10 at French Field in Kent.
