Jake Schaefer wins Jr. Olympics cross country race

Jake Schaefer first started running the mile in his fifth-grade PE class.

He wanted to give it a try to see how he would do and quickly discovered he was a long-distance runner.

That was two years ago and Schaefer hasn't looked back since. On Nov. 8, Schaefer won his age division at the USATF Snake River Association Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships with a time of 11:43 in the 3,000-meter event.

His time was eight seconds better the second-place finisher and 59 seconds better than the fourth-place runner.

"It felt good," Schaefer said of winning the 11-12 age division.

His win qualifies him for the national championships in Virginia in December. He, and his family, have yet to decide if he'll travel across the country for the race.

Schaefer ran in the national championship race last year after finishing third in the same event he won this year. There he said he finished in the middle of the pack.

If the regional race is his last of the year, it caps off a brilliant cross country season for the seventh-grade student at Hacker Middle School.

Schaefer was named the school's boys cross country team's most outstanding performer after winning two meets, finishing second twice and finishing third twice in the eight-race season.

He finished 13th at the season-ending district meet in a field of 164 runners.

"His hard work has paid off," Mountain Home Tiger cross country coach Dan Young said.

Young said Schaefer's time improve by an average of a minute compared to last season's times where his best finish was seventh place.

"To be successful, you have to know how to work hard, Jake knows how to do that," Young said.

Schaefer spent part of the summer training with the high school cross country team, where his sister, Haley, was a member of the girls team that finished sixth at state in October.

He said he also took advantage of his sister's drivers license over the summer and would ride with her to places to run.

"I think it's really flattering he's done the same sport I've done and has done really well in it," Haley said, who finished 25th at the state meet.

She said she doesn't mind seeing her little brother run with at her team's practices and said she's amazed he can keep up with the team while sometimes beating some of the members.

Haley said she doesn't try to keep up with Jake when they run together because he starts off faster then she'd prefer but said she thinks she has more endurance than him since she's older.

However, she's in no hurry to race her little brother.

"I don't want to ever race him," she said. "I'm afraid he'll beat me and I'll never hear the end of it."

The two won't be on the same team until she's a senior and he's a freshman in 2010.

Young credited Schaefer's summer training and his family's willingness to get Schaefer involved in running in local running events as the reasons for his improvement.

Schaefer said he likes running because its different and it takes him to new places.

"It's not so much the running I like, it's the experience of going places," he said.

So far in his young running career he has run in places as far away as Kansas and Alaska.

Schaefer is currently getting ready for the indoor track season, something he says he is only doing to help him get ready for outdoor track in the spring.

On the track, Schaefer competes in the mile, the 800 meters, the 400 meters and the high jump.

His reason for selecting those events is simple.

"I like them because I do pretty well at them and I don't make a fool out of myself," he said. "If I ran a sprint, that's what I would do."