KALISPELL — Kalispell Glacier’s Owen Thiel has trained to be one of the best distance runners in the state, and after high school he will continue running at the next level.
Thiel currently holds the top marks in Class AA for the 1,600-meter run with a time 4 minutes, 8.85 seconds and the 3,200 with an 8:50.57 in his senior season.
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With those numbers, Thiel has drawn attention at the college level, and he recently committed to Wyoming where he will follow in his father Nick Thiel’s footsteps and compete for the track and cross country teams in Laramie, Wyo.
“My dad went there, and he played a big role because he really enjoyed college and running on the team,” Thiel said. “So yeah, he's a big influence, too.”
Thiel hopes to study engineering at Wyoming and be pushed by his future teammates.
He believes the program will prepare him to continue improving as a runner.
“Performance-wise, I want to be the best I can; I want to see where my limits are,” Thiel said. “Some specific goals, I guess, would be obviously breaking four in the mile. That's always been a lifetime goal for me, and knocking my dad off the school record boards would also be fun.”
Thiel said his time at Glacier has made him believe he can be coached into running faster times in college.
“I found myself being able to trust my coaches,” Thiel said. “Even if I think something's wrong, I'll disagree with it and I think for a second, you know what, maybe I should be doing something different. And then I just, I realized that they know what they're doing and I can just leave it to them.”
Even though Thiel has made his college commitment, he is still focused on finishing out his high school career strong and taking home first-place medals at state.
“Try and get some wins, and then I'm going to maybe try and get some all-American recognition,” Thiel said.
