In only his second year on the track and field team, Kent-Meridian High senior Nate Barton is ranked among the top boys’ 400-meter runners in the state.
Barton set a personal-best 49.54 seconds in a meet against Tahoma on April 16, finishing nearly two seconds ahead of the next finisher.
At the beginning of April, Barton had the fastest 400 time in the state. He was fourth in the rankings after the Tahoma meet.
Barton, a football and basketball player, joined the track team his junior year, after track coaches encouraged him to give running a try.
“It took us three years to get him to come out,” said co-head track coach Michael Christiansen. “He has really carried over to a great senior year.”
Barton decided to stick with track after seeing he was a natural sprinter. He also runs the 200, with a personal-best 22.82 seconds, and the 4×100 relay. He has also competed in the triple and long jumps but decided to focus on running this year.
Barton qualified for districts last season but was unable to compete because of family issues. He was also a part of the 4×100 relay team that qualified for state, but he did not run due to injury.
Barton spent time in the offseason learning how to prevent injuries in hopes of staying healthy enough to run in the Class 4A district and state meets this year.
Barton has three goals for the season. The first two are to run the 400 in 48 seconds and place in the top three in the state. The third is for the Royals to win the state title, which he believes is feasible.
“We have a lot of talent on this team this year,” he said. “(Last year) we had a pretty good team, but we were small in numbers. (This year) we have a lot more numbers and younger people.”
Barton is waiting to see if his future holds offers to run at the collegiate level. If that doesn’t work out, he plans to play football.
“I seem to be most dominate in track,” he said. “But football is my passion.”
Barton has played football since he was 7. He is primarily a cornerback but also plays receiver and running back.
Barton is someone the other athletes can look up to, said Christiansen, who is in his first year as head coach.
“He has been a great team leader,” he said. “He leads by example.”
Barton enjoys the atmosphere of the track team.
“I try to push my teammates as well as I can,” he said.
Christiansen sees a lot of potential in this year’s track team. The boys team is relatively young, with a lot of juniors.
“I think we will make a good appearance at state this year,” he said.
Kent-Meridian has a strong tradition of track and field. In Christiansen’s eight years at the school, 25 students have gone on to participate in track and field in college. The boys team won state in 2011 and finished second in 2009.
“It is one of our sports – something we take a lot of pride in,” Christiansen said.
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