Sheldon-Allen hopes he hasn't run his last race

Once Chance Sheldon-Allen got on the track and field oval he quickly made his mark.

But getting him out there? That took a little time.

“I wasn’t out as freshman,” the senior sprint champion for Flathead High School said. “I did eighth grade year for like two weeks and I was like, ‘I don’t like this.’ ”

But Flathead girls’ track coach Charlie Dotson kept recruiting and eventually – after spring break his sophomore year – Sheldon-Allen got back in a pair of spike. He ended up loving it.

“The connections you have with people – not only your team, but people all over the state,” he said this week. “And not just to be friends, but to be able to compete against them.”

It may or may not help to be the fastest of the bunch. That’s what Sheldon-Allen was last year in the 100 meters, clocking 10.88 seconds to claim the state title.

In second was Missoula Sentinel’s Jaden Foster at 11.04; in fourth was Dyllyn Stabler of Glacier at 11.13.

“Dyllyn Stabler and I got really close,” Sheldon-Allen said. “Jaden Foster, we always kept up with each other. I don’t know many of the Billings guys (West’s Connor Ryan ended up third at state) but knew of them and talked to them.”

And beat them. It was a pretty stunning turn of events, though he remembers only Frenchtown’s Jace Klucewich beating him over 100 meters his junior year.

As a sophomore he made it to the State AA meet as a sprinter and relay runner, and the Braves were fifth in the short relay in 2018 and second in the long (1,600-meter) relay. Not exactly an earth-shattering debut.

“At that time, it wasn’t really a thought,” Sheldon-Allen said. “I was told, ‘You’ll probably be on the four-by-100 relay.’ I couldn’t really expect to be a state champ as a junior.”

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“He’s good,” veteran track coach Dan Hodge said. “He’s extremely fast. At 10.88 seconds, he’s the second-fastest sprinter I’ve had in my 47 years at Flathead High School.”

The credit, Hodge says, goes to Sheldon-Allen. The naturally fast kids don’t always take to the drills and special workouts right away, but it appears the then-sophomore was a quick study.

“From that point on he’s been a mainstay,” Hodge said. “All that is designed not just to get you in shape, it’s designed to prevent injury.

“But he’s got that gift that some kids, no matter how hard they work, never get. He has speed.”

The fastest sprinter Hodge had? Craig Galle, whose 10.84-second 100 in 1994 stood as the state record for seven years.

Hodge has visions of Sheldon-Allen competing in five events this spring, after he was second in the 200 (to Foster, also a junior) and fourth in the long jump at state a year ago.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S.

Montana’s spring sports are in a holding pattern until at least an April 13 announcement by the Montana High School Association.

“He was doing everything he could to make himself better,” Hodge said of Sheldon-Allen. “For one whole week.”

With organized athletics suspended all Sheldon-Allen can do is head to the track every other day and plan for the best case scenario.

“I still have some hope the season is going to come back,” he said. “I want to make sure my legs are in shape and I’m ready to go when that time comes, if it does.”

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Meanwhile he’s already made the decision about college: The 5-foot-10, 165-pounder signed with UM-Western in Dillon to play football. He’ll likely play corner and return kicks for the Bulldogs.

“I was talking to the track coach at Montana State for a while,” said Sheldon-Allen, who was also recruited by the Carroll and Montana Tech football programs. “I’m kind of glad I chose football because obviously this track season hasn’t come for us.”

It would obviously be a shame if it didn’t happen. But if last Memorial Day weekend was his last race as a prep, what a way to go: On his own track, lined up with the best in the state.

There are 17 events at track and field meets, but everyone stops to watch the 100.

“I was beyond nervous for that,” Sheldon-Allen said. “Especially being in front of everybody. And having lane five – everybody expects you to win. I blacked out for a second.

“Usually you hear people talking, but there was no one. Dead silent.”

Then the starting gun fired, and Sheldon-Allen made his mark.