LOUISVILLE — The first time Isaac Green encountered cross country, he loved it. Then he quickly hated it.
His mother, Joanie Carew, was coaching at Broomfield. He spied her runners and decided to join them.
“When I was little, I tried to run with the high school boys,” Green, now a junior at Monarch, recalled. “I went about 100 feet, fell down and started crying because I couldn’t keep up.
“But it has just been in my family. I didn’t really like it, but I did it because it was the thing to do. I did cross country my freshman year and have kind of kept it going.”
Eleventh a year ago at the Class 5A state meet, Green is blossoming into perhaps the favorite at next month’s state championships and is definitely its most intriguing.
Not only has he been undefeated in 2015 entering the weekend, including winning the prestigious Liberty Bell Invitational, Green’s physical dimensions are unlike any other distance runner in sight or memory.
“He looks like a football player,” said Coyotes athletic director Russ McKinstry, who has been on the level for decades. “He’s a specimen, not like your typical cross country runner. I don’t remember seeing one like him. He looks a like a tight end.”
Monarch coach Kent Rieder estimated Green at 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds.
“I’m sure the football coach would love to have him at tight end or defensive end,” Rieder said. “Physically, he’s that big.”
Actually, Green said, he’s 6-1, although “everybody sees more and they all think I’m taller than that. It just looks that way.”
No matter the numbers, Green always appears to be the tallest, heaviest and most muscular at the starting line. Whereas most distance runners look like they have missed too many meals, Green may be the one in-state runner who can include the word “strength” in his repertoire.
Plus, he has competed in swimming and will be play basketball this season, indicative of his all-around ability.
“He’s a special athlete, a man among boys right now,” Rieder said. “Physically, he’s a college sophomore. He’s physically that mature.”
Green, who said he has a cousin named Rod Carew (not the Hall of Famer), is used to it.
“Actually, the first question I always get is, ‘Do you play sports and what position in football do you play?’ or something like that,’ he said.
He admits to a “love-hate” relationship toward distance running, specifically, he said, “with the running part. I do enjoy it, but it’s an uncomfortable thing to do.”
Last spring, Green won the 5A 1,600 meters in 4 minutes, 19.26 seconds and was second in the 800 at 1:51. But he isn’t a numbers or time guy.
“Isaac is a racer,” Rieder said. “He goes off to win. He doesn’t worry about times. which is great for a kid. All they think about is, ‘I’ve got to get this time, got to get this time.’ Not Isaac; he’s not that way.”
As far as times go, Alan Versaw, The Classical Academy coach and operator of the Colorado MileSplit website, said “sub-16 (minutes) is good for a kid and a lot of kids have been 16-ing. … (Green) certainly has the raw speed few cross country runners ever dream of and I’ve seen him race. It seems consistent with what I’ve seen.”
Green, who ran 17:13.4 at state in 2014 (16:19.4 won it) doesn’t particularly care if a race takes him 16 minutes or 20, although he offered a torrid 15:16 at the Liberty Bell. It’s simply a byproduct of his wanting to win.
“Time? I have been PR-ing and getting very fast times, but to me it’s more about winning the race and what I have to do to win it,” he said. “Kicking is my main thing. It always has been.”
Also a 6-4 high jumper, Rieder said Green “has decathlete written all over him.”
Recruiting interest is pouring in, including from schools such as CU and Michigan.
Lyons’ Paul Roberts, SkyView Academy’s Ben Butler, Rampart’s Ben Dingman, Brooomfield’s Jake Mitchem, Golden’s Alec Hornecker and Arapahoe’s Steven Goldy have been some of the state’s top racers.
Green, whose sister, Claire, is a sophomore runner at Arizona, may be ready take on all comers. The 16-year-old looks to be building toward a huge finish.
“I just go out there and try to do my best,” he said.
