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COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa – Sam Chaney has a sign on the bulletin board in his bedroom that reads, “State champion?”

For the Columbus Community senior, it’s a visual reminder of the past and what he hopes transpires in the near future at the state cross country meet in Fort Dodge.

Chaney went to last year’s state event as one of the race favorites in Class 2A, but he came home without a medal. In fact, he never crossed the finish line at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.

With nearly a mile remaining in the 3.1-mile race, Chaney collapsed. He was taken in an ambulance to a Fort Dodge hospital. After several hours there and a day of tests at the University of Iowa Hospitals the following week, doctors determined Chaney had a salt deficiency from a lack of nutrition.

“I just didn’t eat or drink much and that really came back to bite me,” Chaney said.

Chaney has never lacked for motivation, but that day burns deep in his stomach.

“I always knew I was the best at the state meet, but it’s kind of an eye-opener when you come home after that and kids are asking, ‘What happened?’ Chaney said. “I’m definitely making a point this year to make up for it.”

So far, Chaney has done that in Secretariat-like fashion.

Going into Thursday’s district meet, the top-ranked runner in 2A is a perfect 9-for-9 this season and owns six course records. Six of his nine wins have come by 20 seconds or more, including a 41-second triumph at the Southeast Iowa Super Conference meet recently.

“(The season) is going according to plan,” Chaney said, “but it’s kind of a waste unless I do what I know I can at state. You’ve got to perform at the big meets.

“I refuse to lose.”

Victories aside, Chaney has improved his time by an average of 36 seconds per meet this season in the six comparable races. He’s also defeated the top two runners in Class 4A – Burlington’s JT McCarthy and Marshall Moyer – at the Fort Madison Invitational.

Chaney has posted three sub-16 minute races this fall, including a blistering 15:08 at Mount Pleasant.

“I think he’s the best runner in the state, but I won’t believe it until it’s over,” Columbus coach Mike Jay said. “We’ve had our heart broken too many times. For his sake, I hope it happens. I think it will happen.”

Off and running

Chaney played football in the fifth grade, but an injury in the opening month squashed the thought of a career on the gridiron.

“I got landed on by a kid in a pickup game and cracked my collarbone,” Chaney recalled. “I pretty much figured out maybe I wasn’t built to play football.”

A year later, Chaney’s mother, Jacque, encouraged Sam to run with the cross country team.

“I hated it,” said Sam, who still had a desire to play junior high football. “I didn’t see the point of running every day. I thought it was stupid.”

But success helped Chaney forget football and concentrate on running.

Chaney was a junior high conference champion in the 1600 and placed second at the state cross country meet as an eighth grader. He also trained with the Columbus varsity team and could beat everyone on the squad except Casey Robertson and Joe Jay – who were third and fifth, respectively, that year at districts.

“As an eighth grader, something just clicked,” Jacque said. “The more he read, the more involved he became with it. He just fell in love with the sport.”

Chaney ran varsity as a freshman and qualified for state and placed 27th, but a stress fracture limited his productivity as a sophomore.

“He beat himself to a pulp trying to get to the next level,” Mike Jay said. “Sam thought every day was race day. He had to learn you can only go to the well so many times, and that’s got to be on race day. The body has to recover and heal.”

Chaney rebounded with an outstanding junior season. He was a conference and district champion in cross country. In track, he qualified for the Drake Relays in the 1600 and 3200 along with finishing fifth in the 3200 and seventh in the 1600 at state.

“He does everything as hard as you can do,” teammate Jake Keller said. “It’s fun to run with him because he pushes all of us.”

A complete runner

When Chaney approached the starting line at last year’s state meet, Jay knew his standout runner was in trouble.

“His hands were all clammy and cold,” he said. “He was wound tighter than an eight-day clock.”

After watching McCarthy and Moyer finish 1-2 in the 4A race and Winterset’s Evan Selsor, a friend of Chaney’s, claim the 3A title, Chaney believed it was his turn to do the same.

A mile into the race, Chaney was running stride for stride with the leader.

“I still felt like I was going to win it,” he said.

A half-mile later, Chaney started falling back.

“I basically knew I had nothing left,” he recalled. “I was going for second.”

But Chaney continued to falter, eventually collapsing in the final mile.

Jay partly blames himself for Chaney’s outcome.

“He had food in his backpack that he was on schedule to eat, but I didn’t make sure he ate it,” Jay said. “It was still in his backpack when he got done.

“The mental stress was probably tougher on him than the nutrition, and I should have been able to control that somewhat and I didn’t.”

Chaney said nerves were the biggest reason he didn’t eat prior to the race.

“I didn’t have any appetite, and my stomach was upset,” he said. “I had no fuel to burn.”

As a result, the experience humbled him.

“Last year I thought I was invincible and nobody could touch me,” Chaney said. “That really brought me down to reality.”

In hindsight, Jay believes that day “was the best thing that ever happened” to Chaney’s career.

“It hurt like hell, but he’s trained differently and approached races differently,” Jay said. “He’s as tough mentally now as he is physically. That’s the key.”

Chaney’s training regime is still stringent, often running 12 to 14 miles a day on the weekends. However, he’s learned when to push it and when to dial it back.

“I think a lot of people on the outside see Sam and don’t think he has a lot of fun,” Jacque said. “He runs every day, and he’s not the kind of kid that’s really out doing a lot. He’s a little bit introverted.

“But as his mom, I know what it’s taken for him to be the runner he has become and the runner he wants to be in college. He has had to give up a lot to get to that point.”

The last chance

Chaney, who owns a 3.91 grade-point average and ranks third in his class of 56, has two meets remaining in his storybook prep cross country career – Thursday’s meet at Cedarcrest Country Club in Columbus Junction and the Oct. 31 state meet in Fort Dodge.

While he’ll be the overwhelming favorite at both meets, he’s trying to avoid putting any additional pressure on himself.

“I’m going to approach it like another meet,” he said. “I didn’t last year and that’s what killed me. If I put my best on the course, I’m going to be pretty tough to beat.”

Jay believes Chaney’s mental maturity– an area he’s focused on significantly in the past year – will be the X-factor in his runner’s success at state.

“He’s an animal on the cross country course,” Jay said. “If he goes to the state meet mentally prepared, he won’t be beaten.

“The most important thing at Fort Dodge is he doesn’t try and put the field away in the first mile, and then starts hurting and somebody catches him.”

Chaney said he won’t make a decision on where he’ll run in college until after the state meet. He’s leaning toward Iowa, but he’s also heard from Iowa State, Drake, Western Illinois and a slew of Division III schools.

“If he was still running this year with the same mindset as last, I’m not sure he’d make it in college,” Jay said. “Now he’s got everything under control. He’s going to go to the next level and be a great contributor for somebody’s program.”

First, Chaney has some unfinished business — like crossing the question mark off the sign in his bedroom.

“I want to win and I want to win big,” he said, “but I’m not going to go in there and try and beat everyone by so many seconds.

“When it comes to the state meet, if I can run up top, that’s what counts.

“I just want to win.”

Chaney’s perfect season

Columbus’ Sam Chaney is 9-for-9 this fall. Here’s a look at his times in each race, the time of the second-place finisher and his margin of victory:

Date Meet Time 2nd  Diff.

Sept. 1 at Iowa Mennonite 16:27 16:48 21 sec.

Sept. 5 at Central College 15:55 16:03 8 sec.

Sept. 8 at Keota Invite 16:10 16:54 44 sec.

Sept. 12 at Benton Invite 16:28 17:06 38 sec.

Sept. 17 at Fort Madison 16:25 16:26 1 sec.

Sept. 22 at Mt. Pleasant 15:08 15:49 41 sec.

Sept. 28 at CC-Amana 16:27 17:06 39 sec.

Oct. 5 Mike Jay Invite 15:20 16:28 68 sec.

Oct. 8 SEISC C’ship 16:25 17:06 41 sec.