Evans easing into final season

 MARION -- You won't see Josh Evans compete at the Cedar Rapids Prairie Invitational on Saturday, and you probably won't see him next week, either.Don't worry. He's not hurt, he's not sick.He's fine."Last year, I went too hard, too early," said Evans, a senior at Linn-Mar High School. "It's a 10- to 12-week season, and I want to be 100-percent healthy when I need to be, at the end of the season."Evans' track season went beyond the state meet and into the early part of the summer. Instead of pounding out the miles through July and into August, he eased off the throttle."He needed some down time," said Linn-Mar Coach Todd Goodell. "We just don't want to rush things along. He wants to be his best when it counts."It has been 19 years since the Metro has produced an individual boys state champion, and Evans is most certainly capable of breaking the drought Nov. 2 at Fort Dodge.He was a state runner-up as a sophomore, then finished ninth last year at the end of an injury-burdened season.Three months ago, at the state track meet, he won the Class 4A 3,200-meter title (9:13.34) and ran second in the 1,600 (4:12.03); he also ran third in the 800 and anchored the winning medley relay as the Lions claimed the state team championship.Times like that have attention of high-end Division-I college programs. And so do other numbers, like a 32 ACT and a 4.4 GPA.Evans, who plans to run his first meet Sept. 12 at the Cedar Rapids Invitational, has college visits planned at Oklahoma State, Stanford, Iowa State and Iona College. He's also pondering Wisconsin, Oregon and Michigan."Definitely, I think I have the times to run for about any Division-I school," he said.If you know Evans, you know those aren't words of a braggart.Josh Evans doesn't run for Josh Evans."God gave me the gift to run, and I feel that's how He wants me to go out and glorify Him," Evans said.Evans was home-schooled through ninth grade. His first venture into athletics at Linn-Mar came in seventh grade. He played on the football team, as an 80-some-pound lineman."I wasn't coordinated enough to be a running back or a receiver, so they put me on the line," he said. "It wasn't pretty."He ran track that spring. Before long, he became good. Then great."Josh is a very hard worker," Goodell said. "But here's the thing: Some people are built to run, and some people aren't as much."Josh is a runner. He has the whole package. And most kids could train all year and not be as good as Josh would be if he sat on the couch."With 2012 4A girls state champion Stephanie Jenks opting not to run this fall, Evans is the undisputed face of Linn-Mar cross country, a program that is among the state's elite.Last year, the girls finished second at state while the boys were third."The girls have a good core back, and I really like our depth," Goodell said. "The boys are going to be extremely solid. The main issue is going to be keeping our top dogs healthy. If we do, we should be extremely competitive."Evans said, "We're super-motivated. A state title ... that would be sweet."