The Lewis-Clark State College men’s and women’s track and cross country programs have added three high school senior recruits for next season, Warrior coach Mike Collins has announced.
Conor Smith (pictured left), a senior at Eagle High School in Idaho, and Dakotah Pilon, who attends Lake Stevens High in Washington, are both distance runners who will compete in both cross country and track for LCSC.
Smith currently holds personal bests of 4 minutes and 35 seconds in 1,600, 10:01 in the 3,200 from earlier this year, and 16:22 in the 5K for cross country. He finished 10th overall in the Idaho State 5A Cross Country Meet last fall and helped his team to a fourth-place finish. He also placed 16th as a junior when his team won the state title.
“He already understands the importance of the team concept as an important contributing member of two trophy winning teams in the past two years,” Collins said. “We expect that mentality to continue here where he will help the program take a step to the next level.”
Pilon (pictured right) has posted times of 2:32 in the 800, 5:40 in the 1,600, 12:15 in the 3,200, and 20:03 for 5K in cross country.“She comes from a well developed program and is used to running a lot of miles already, so we feel she is going to have a great base of running coming in and we will focus on getting her faster,” Collins said. “We believe with the supportive and competitive environment here at LCSC, she will start to shine and show what she is capable of doing in races.”
The third recruit is Jorden Lorton, who is a thrower for the Emmett High track team in Idaho. She currently ranks No. 1 in Class 4A for the shot put and is second overall among all high school seniors in Idaho. She also ranks No. 5 in discus and is expected to medal in both events at the State meet this week.
Last year at State, she finished third in the shot put and sixth in the discus.
“We believe she has a lot of potential to improve and could be a national qualifier in both events her freshman year,” Collins said.
