There are few students at CHS who don’t know who Chris Coles is. For the past four years of his high school career, CHS senior Chris Coles has consistently brought individual success to the Claremont cross-country team. Throughout this season, his captaincy role on the team has been influential to the newcomers and crucial overall in shaping the team itself.
However, Coles’ success has been mounted by the hard work and dedication he has put into the team. Running an average of 50 miles a week, his hard core practices vary on endurance.
“A practice can range anywhere from six to ten miles, however there are different types of those practices.” Coles said. “On recovery days, we run at a lighter pace just to get the mileage we need, while a workout day ranges anything from sprints to running harder than usual. On the weekend, we almost always have a race, or if not, we focus on longer distance runs.”

When Coles first started running in early 2016, his natural talent and hard work kicked in, and for nearly six years, his accomplishments have become too many to count.

“My most notable achievement has definitely been the Mt. SAC invitational race which took place just a couple weeks ago.” Coles said. “That was a big deal, and I managed to come out on top there.”

With Mt. SAC being one of the most competitive running races in the country and one of the most difficult with its steep elevation and various switchbacks, it was definitely an achievement that Coles turned out in a breakout performance. He won the team sweeps in an unbelievably fast 14 minutes, 56.9 seconds for his three mile race. Now, Coles looks ahead to his biggest challenge yet. This year’s cross-country state competition will be featured in Clovis, California, and Coles hopes to win there as well.

“My goal is to come out on top, but that’s not what I’m necessarily expecting,” Coles said. “Obviously, it would be amazing to take that title, and it would be a huge accomplishment, but I have to be prepared for anything. The numbers are showing that I’m favored, which is exciting, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if that didn’t happen. Either way, it’s going to be a really fun day.”

Coles believes that, win or not, he will be happy with his accomplishments these past four years. He believes the memories were a big contribution to his experience on the cross country team, especially a few in particular. With Coles’ knack for running, it’s no surprise that he’ll be continuing his experience even after the final race of the year in Clovis.

“I’m certainly going to run in college, and beyond college,” Coles said. “It’s really exciting going forward. With every race, it’s a heavy moment, because with every race I run I’m always with the mentality that ‘this is one of the last races I’ll ever run,’ but I am definitely excited to run for whatever future program I decide to run for.”

As the season comes to an end, Coles would like to give a shoutout to every person who was on the team this season. He states that there are a lot of people who have worked really hard, and they’re going to carry the team forward.

Coles doesn’t know what he wants to do with his future, but he does know which ice cream he would want to be if he could choose.

“I would say maybe the vanilla raspberry ice cream with nuts in it. I don’t know why. I don’t want chocolate to be my favorite ice cream, because that’s just kind of plain, kind of boring. I want an ice cream flavour that’s more exciting.”

Although he doesn’t know which college he wants to commit to yet, he knows he wants to stay in California. However, no matter where Coles ends up schooling or running in the future, it’s definitely plausible to assume success will follow him.