Here there are future Division I stars running for Hall of Fame coaches and a legacy of cross country prowess that litters the state record books. The latest wunderkind, Glacier’s Annie Hill, is a junior and already the two-time defending Class AA state champion. She might also be the most sought-after recruit from Kalispell since the Houston Texans’ quarterback was slinging the ball around Legends Stadium.

Then there’s Sage Wanner in Columbia Falls, a transplant to the Valley and relative newcomer to the sport, running up and down a hill near a sewage treatment plant and plotting his course to the Class A state championship.

Wanner moved to Columbia Falls from Bakersfield, California before his junior year of high school and arrived as hardly a polished runner. He began competing in cross country only two years earlier but even before he had any formal coaching he showed immense natural speed.

“In eighth grade I did one of those fun runs,” Wanner said. “And I ran like a 17:30 so my dad’s like ‘you’re a really good runner’ and I just loved it from that point on.

“Sage had a lot to learn last year,” Columbia Falls coach Jim Peacock said. “Beautiful speed, tons of energy and ran with a ton of passion last year, but he’d never experienced being a front-runner so his running IQ was still a little down.”

Still, Wanner posted some terrific results throughout the fall of 2015, culminating in an eighth-place finish at the state meet. As he continued to get more comfortable in his new town and new school, the successes kept piling up athletically.

He was on a Wildcats swim team that won a state championship and part of a 400-yard freestyle relay team that finished third. In the spring, he won his first state track championship in the 3,200-meters and finished third in the 1,600, leading the Wildcats to a second-place finish as a team.

His coaches have continued to put polish on Wanner and work with him on his course management and “running IQ,” and the results have been positive early this fall. He won the Libby Invitational on Aug. 27, a race that included several Class AA teams, and did so in a personal-best time of 15:53.

“He learns ever time he runs,” Peacock said. “He learns at every practice. Anything we talk about, he’s a student and pays attention.”

Peacock is a first-year head coach after serving as an assistant last season, and as a student himself once ran for Hall of Fame coach Sam Samson at Jefferson High School. He credits his mentor with shaping his own coaching style, which has built confidence inside a Columbia Falls boys team that has not finished in the top three at the state meet since 2009, when the Wildcats won a state title.

“Honestly, I believe that when they kids start believing in themselves and believe that their body can do a little bit more than they ever thought their body can do, they’re going to take the next step,” he said.

The result is a confident team that believes it will end that drought and bring home a top-three finish — resulting in bit of hardware — at the state meet next month. Wanner has some help, too, with Gabe Knudsen and Winfield West also coming off top-16 finishes in Libby.

“We’re just focused on trying to get a plaque,” Wanner said. “We think it can happen, we believe it’s going to happen and we’re just going for it.

“We’re just really focused this year. I feel like this year’s way better than last year. We’re just mentally there.”

The state cross country meet will be held at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell for the first time ever on Oct. 22 and, with an eye on the future, teams from across the state will gather at the farm for the Flathead Invitational on Friday. Wanner and Columbia Falls will be among the competitors.

“I’ll study pretty much every part of the course and know where my weaknesses are going to be and where I’m going to have strengths,” Wanner said. “I want to pretty much use my run on Friday as a benchmark for the state meet.”

Peacock wants his entire team taking the same approach and running smart, an area where he says Wanner has vastly improved since last season.

“It’s not that we’re talking about ‘hey, we’ve got to go out and try and beat all of these teams or finish at this level at the meet,’” Peacock said. “It’s ‘hey, we need to go there and learn.’ Everything we’re doing is geared towards the last meet of the year. It doesn’t matter to me if a kid wins this race or takes last in this race, what matters to me is that they’re taking positive steps towards being better the third week of October.”

Wanner, too, has Oct. 22 circled on his calendar, and he knows how we wants that race to end, even as he recognizes he’ll need to shave another 20 seconds or so off his personal best.

“I want to take first in the state,” he said.

If that happens, he’ll cement his place as the Valley’s latest cross country celebrity.

The Flathead Invitational at Rebecca Farm is Friday, with the first race beginning at 2 p.m. and the varsity races expected to start at approximately 3:30 p.m.