North Cedar runner Seamus Raney ready for big senior year

CLARENCE - From being hidden in the 3,200-meter pack to competing at the state championships his junior year, Seamus Raney is becoming a very talented runner.

Raney, a junior at North Cedar, started his high school running career by running cross country in the fall, posting a 5K best of 20 minutes, 6 seconds. Moving into the spring, Raney started running varsity track events during that freshman season. He a 3,200 best of 11:31, a 1,600 time of 5:32 and also ran the 800, clocking in at 2:25.

Continuing the running lifestyle, Raney ran cross country again his sophomore year and improved his times every meet. Raney ran track again in the spring with faster times than his freshman year, cutting his mile time by 28 seconds and his 800 time by 16 seconds. Raney also ran in the 400 with his best at 55 seconds.

This past fall, he finished the cross country season with his best time of 18:40, medaling in nearly every meet. At the beginning of his junior year, Raney was running his 800 meter at 2:09, his 400 meter at 52 seconds, anchoring the sprint medley with the 400 and finishing most meets with the 1,600 relay.

Now Raney is running his 800 meter at 2:03, cutting six seconds off his previous best, while running his 400s in 50 seconds, cutting five seconds off his early dashes.

'I like being considered a leader,” Raney said.

From leading stretches to start off practice to leading the runs, Raney is no doubt a great leader on the team.

'Seamus is fast, really fast, I wish I was as fast as him,” teammate Chance Cinkovich said.

Raney has some big goals for his senior year. The want for more never ends with him. He said qualifying for the Drake Relays and breaking the school record for the 800 is what his summer, fall, winter and spring training will be all about,

Coach Scott Kasik has been Raney's coach since freshman year.

'Kasik has helped by being hard on the team in practice so we are ready for meets” and 'sometimes practices suck but they are making us better,” Raney said, noting the things that help him the most at meets are doing the same stretches, focusing on the event he is about to run and hearing Kasik yelling at him to keep his form.

Earlier this month, Raney ran on the blue oval at Drake Stadium for the first time in his high school career, qualifying for state in two events - the sprint medley and the 800 meter run. Despite getting sick the week of state, Raney still represented North Cedar with his head up and pushed through.

Not running as well as he hoped, Raney still had the mind-set of a winner.

'Going from the bottom this year to first next year is what I am going to do,” he said.