MALTA — In the quaint hallways and classrooms of Raft River High School sits a shy sophomore girl.
She’s friendly and compassionate, always looking for ways to include classmates who might not fit in. She gets good grades. She excels at extracurricular activities, although she’d never brag about that.
Those who meet Allie Black may not realize the level of talent this unassuming student has. But underneath her quiet demeanor are the characteristics of a state champion.
Black is an athlete who embodies both hard work and humility.
She finished first at the Idaho State Cross-Country Championships this year in the 1A Women’s 5,000 meters race with a time of 19:20.70. That’s not bad for an athlete who’s only been running for two years, especially considering that second place finished a full 16 seconds behind her.
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It was a gap so large that Black was convinced she took a wrong turn out on the course.
“I felt lost,” she said.
But Black wasn’t lost. She was the new state champion.
Furthermore, she set a new course record at Eagle Island State Park in the 1A division. The previous record, set in 2017, was a time of 19:27.18.
Being as humble as she is, Black didn’t even tell her parents about the course record accomplishment. It fell to head coach Brooke Christensen to break the news.
“Now, every state course has a record by a Raft River girl in the 1A division,” said Christensen, whose daughter Kaybree holds the records at Lewiston and Pocatello.
“Allie will probably get the other two very soon,” she said.
Prior to high school, Black had never run cross-country. She enjoyed running and would often do so while completing her chores on her family’s cattle ranch, but the thought of competing never occurred to her.
“I would always run out to feed the dogs,” she said. “It just didn’t appeal to me to walk.”
When Black started high school, Kaybree Christensen and her twin sister, Karlee, convinced her to join the team. The Christensens had competed for a couple of years on their own, but they wanted to start an official team with the school.
“They kept telling me to do it,” Black said. “I finally decided to listen to them.”
Coach Christensen didn’t have any expectations for the girls on the team during the first year. Without prior experience to fall back on, Christensen wasn’t sure how the athletes would perform.
Within a few meets, those expectations changed.
“Allie was in the top pretty quickly,” the coach said. “It wasn’t long before we figured out she’d do pretty well.”
By the end of her freshman season, Black was a state qualifier. Even then, the extent of her talent hadn’t fully sunk in.
“At first it didn’t register,” Black said. “It wasn’t until the night before state that it actually clicked.
“I was like, wow, I never thought I’d make it this far.”
Black ran in the state meet and finished third behind the Christensen twins. In their inaugural year as a team, Raft River High School became the 1A state champions.
After that, cross-country was no longer a question mark for Black. This was something she was going to do.
Black spent her summer training on her own. She set up a course on her family’s ranch that circled the irrigation pivots. Each week she’d log about 20 miles of running.
By the time her sophomore season began, Black was eager to compete.
“Physically, she came in a lot stronger this year,” coach Christensen said.
For Christensen, having Black on the team is a dream come true. Black might not be the most vocal of leaders, but she does lead by example.
“She’s the one that shows up, never complains, works hard the entire time, never misses a practice and never stops,” the coach said.
Black is an asset to her team and an athlete other runners admire, but physicality is only half the battle.
As the saying goes, running is 90% mental and 10% physical.
Christensen focused on getting Black to believe in her own abilities. If Black can achieve that, the possibilities are endless, Christensen said.
“She needs to realize that she’s strong enough to do this,” the coach said.
Black said she often feels that mental block when she’s running. A battle in her head telling her to stop despite the fact that she’s in the lead. Her advice to other runners is to find a way to push past those thoughts.
“After you finish the race and look back, you’ll realize how easy it was,” she said.
Black plans to return to the team for her junior year. Running is something she loves, and she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
It’s a statement coach Christensen is happy to hear.
“If she doesn’t come back, I’m not coming back,” Christensen said with a smile.