Distance runner Parker Wagnild is a favorite at first state track championships in three years

The spirit lives in the heart of young Parker Wagnild.

Wins, losses, exhilaration, heartbreak. All of it matters and none of it matters. Wagnild loves and lives to run in a Mid-Pacific track and field program that grows each season.

“He’s just a great motivator. His enthusiasm, he shows the team his work ethic, his passion and interest in running,” longtime Owls coach Rick Hendrix said. “They’re in awe of his workouts and he rubs off on them.’

The winning doesn’t hurt. Wagnild has been perfect this spring, winning in his 1,500- and 3,000-meter races. In the past two weeks, he even jumped into the 800 run and posted the best time in the state at 2 minutes, 1.25 seconds at Punahou’s Alexander Field.

“I haven’t really ran a lot of 800. It was kind of a rust-buster. I wanted to get my speed for the 1,500 and 3,000. I hope to go faster, ideally,” the senior said. “My coaches think I can go just under two minutes, maybe 1:57.”

The long-term plan, though, is for Wagnild to stick with the long-distance events. He has a 4:09.7 in the 1,500 this season, easily a personal record, also set last Friday at Punahou. This came before his 800 run.

“I went out there and I know nobody’s going to go with the pace I set. I wanted to get a solid time and keep improving on my buildup to states,” he said.

The Island Movers/HHSAA Track and Field State Championships will be held on May 13-14 at Kamehameha’s Kunuiakea Stadium — with its freshly renovated surface.

Prior to last week’s action, Wagnild had already set a PR at the Ruby Tuesday Invitational, roughly one month ago at Moanalua.

“I was talking to coach (Derek) Coryell, the former Hawaii Baptist Academy coach. The consensus is I can probably bring it down to 4:03 this year. I’m close to the ILH record.

The ILH mark is 4:01.53, set by Kaeo Kruse of Kamehameha in 2016.

In the 3,000 run, Wagnild’s PR is 9:11.52, set last year during the ILH season — when there were no state championships.

“My goal, I’m only going to run the 3,000 at the next meet. I want to get sub-, 8:55-ish,” he said.

Coach Hendrix isn’t set yet on Wagnild’s state-meet events, but Wagnild would be surprised if the 800 is included. Unlike the format of years ago, when the trials were held on a Thursday and finals on a Saturday, states is on back-to-back days. The 800 and 1,500 require preliminary races. Only the 3,000 does not.

“My coach is pretty adamant that I won’t run 800 at states. I would be OK with it. The champion’s mentality is try your best at whatever, and I’ll give it my best.”

When he was much younger, Wagnild ran the 2015 Honolulu Marathon with his parents, Craig and Debbie. Craig Wagnild has run 25 Honolulu Marathons and completed an Ironman. Debbie Wagnild’s most recent race was an improvised 50-mile jaunt on Lopez Island (Wash.) shortly after learning that the Lean Horse run in South Dakota was canceled.

Wagnild put a hold on marathons after he began running at MPI.

“Marathons put a lot of stress on your joints and takes away a lot of the natural speed,” said Wagnild, who has run four of them. “I also didn’t want to get slower on the track, so I stopped marathons in eighth grade.”

Hendrix recalls Wagnild’s start in the Owls’ program five years ago as a seventh grader.

“He was an ordinary long-distance kid — not really fast, but he had the interest, dedication and will. In ninth grade, he kicked it into gear. That’s when he started training harder,” Hendrix said.

As a freshman, Wagnild placed 11th with a time of 4:22.20 in the 1,500 at the state championships at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku.

The pandemic and restrictions wiped out the 2020 and ’21 state meets. Wagnild made the best of it, training through the obstacles. His success and struggle last fall in cross country still provides extra motivational fuel. He was one of the many harriers who were unable to run at peak level in muddy, cold conditions at the state meet on the campus of Hawaii Preparatory Academy.

“I was undefeated early in the season and ran the state’s fastest 5K for a while, 16:16. I also ran a 15:35 3-mile. State championships was a huge disappointment. The conditions were the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.

In the rain, with wind chill below 50 degrees, Wagnild fell three times on the hilly, sloppy course.

“I was one of the favorites and I bombed it because of the circumstances, but I’m not letting that define me. I used that as a springboard coming into this season,” he said.

When the state championships arrive in a few weeks, the track at Kunuiakea Stadium will suit competitors well.

“It’s very springy. I like the feeling of it,” Wagnild said.

He hasn’t lacked motivation, for sure. Coach Hendrix and staff draw up a separate workout routine for Wagnild, and it seems to be working.

“He’s self-motivated. He doesn’t have anyone on the team to push him, so we give him workouts to keep him driven, more specialized for his needs,” Hendrix said. “He does more than he should. We have to sometimes gear him down. We don’t want him to get hurt. He’s like a gym rat. He’s a track rat.”

Wagnild’s mentality has been full steam ahead.

“That’s always been the challenge. I think it makes it mentally tougher to grind by myself. It’s easier if someone is pushing you,” he said.

The Owls are fully aware of the competitive field in Wagnild’s events.

“There’s good runners in all three of the races. Good runners from Maui and the Big Island are coming to states. The ILH is always tough,” Hendrix said. “He was really pushed (in the 800). The kid from Saint Louis is a sophomore and he’s really good.”

While the pandemic lingered in ’21, Wagnild edged forward and eventually won the ILH title in the 3,000 run.

“My coach raced me sparingly and didn’t double me as much as I’m doing this year. I ran one 1,500 last year. It paid off in the end,” he said.

Now, it’s about balance. Trusting the wisdom of his coaches. Resting, training, hydrating, studying — Wagnild has a 3.6 grade-point average and is heading to Seattle University this fall to run and study kinesiology.

Nothing, though, will be quite as simple and pure as running as a Mid-Pacific Owl.

“We have a lot of talent that I think will be developed. If we have the heart for it, they can go places they don’t even know they can go. Without much training, we’re sending a full team of girls and boys to states,” he said. “If they step up to the plate next year, I hope they set a team dynamic of going back (to states) and establish Mid-Pac as a track and field school.”

There are, for Wagnild, no regrets.

“Coach Rick is a great coach. He listens to my thoughts, and that’s one thing I think all athletes wish for in a coach, that they take our feelings into account,” he said. “The coaches know best.”