A few days before the biggest track meet of his high school career Sammamish Totems senior Conor Lanning came down with an extreme case of stuffiness and congestion.

Lanning, who entered the Class 2A district meet ranked as the No. 4  800-meter runner in Washington, refused to let a full-fledged common cold stop him from achieving his dreams on the oval. Lanning captured first place in the 800-meter dash finals, clocking a 1:58.06 on May 23 at North Mason High School in Belfair. He clinched his first ever appearance at the Class 2A state track and field meet, which will take place on May 29-30 at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. Renton’s Tai McMillan finished in second place with a time of 1:58.74. Lanning said his game-plan was to start off the race as fast as possible to avoid being stuck in the middle of the pack of runners.

The strategy worked to perfection.

“My plan was to try to lead the race from line to line. I knew the worst thing that could possibly happen to me was getting caught in the pack because every time that has happened to me in the past I have had a really bad race,” Lanning said. “I was shoulder to shoulder with a guy about 200-meters into the race but once I hit the second curve I was in front for the rest of the way. I had a plan and I executed that plan.”

Lanning said he did everything he could to ignore the body aches, sinus problems and chest congestion during the two laps.

“I put in a lot of hard work but I was still nervous coming into the race because of being sick. I have been battling this cold so it was very satisfying to cross the finish line in first place,” he said.

Lanning’s personal record in the 800 is a 1:56. He believes he can improve upon his 1:58.06 showing at districts.

“My first goal is to make it to the finals. The prelims are Friday (May 29) and the finals are on Saturday (May 30). I’m ranked No. 4 in the state but the next three runners behind me are within one second of me time wise,” Lanning said. “I know as long as I can kick this cold I can definitely get my time close to 1:56. I want to finish in the top three in the finals but I won’t be completely distraught if I don’t do it.”

Five years ago, Lanning had never competitively competed in track and field in his life. It was only after he was prodded by his parents that he decided to give the sport a chance.

“It all started when I was in the seventh grade at Odle Middle School. I really didn’t have any sports to play and was just a skinny little middle schooler. My parents wanted me to do a sport so I tried baseball and soccer and I was pretty bad at both of those,” he said. “I decided to try running that year and it was really, really hard at first but I just kept going with it. I ended up doing pretty well my seventh grade year and just continued it through middle and high school.”