Putting in the miles: Polson’s DiGiallonardo has gone all in for senior season

David DiGiallonardo got to the Polson track around 5:30 p.m. Monday, rested for a bit, then went on a 2-mile “tempo run,” around the oval.

Minutes before, he’d completed a 4.5-mile run with one of his distance coaches, Jason Delaney, and some teammates.

“He’ll be at 6.5 miles today,” Delaney said. “Maybe the cool down will get him to seven.

“Tomorrow is the hard workout. This today is intended to be a controlled workout. Not slow, but controlled.”

So it goes for one of the premier distance runners in Class A, though it wasn’t always that way for DiGiallonardo. There was a time when the times were much higher and the miles way tougher.

“He’s shown great growth throughout his career,” Delaney said. “Not entirely unheard of, but unusual in a way — to show so much growth. When he was in middle school I thought, ‘Well, nice kid who works hard.’ He was not back of the pack in cross country, but he was in the back half.”

That’s where it all started for DiGiallonardo, now a senior.

“I ran cross country in middle school because all my friends were doing it,” he said. “We got to high school and they all played soccer. I didn’t like soccer too much and stuck with cross country.

“Honestly I wasn’t very good until sophomore year, I’d say. I fell in love with it freshman year, but I really got dedicated to it sophomore year.”

You’d then have to describe the last two seasons as rededications: A 10th-place finish in the 1,600 at state as a sophomore became a sixth-place finish last May as a junior.

Ahead of him in the 1,600, taking fourth at 4 minutes, 20.05 seconds, was Billings Central’s Grey Piseno.

“He’s kind of been an idol of mine,” DiGiallonardo, who finished in 4:22.08, said. “Freshman year I looked up to him. He just seemed like this guy that was totally unbeatable.

“But I’ve just made improvement over the years and slowly caught up to him. I hope to have a good race with him at State.”

It will be tough going: Piseno is back, having run a 4:15.37 in the 1,600 at the Carolina Distance Carnival; meanwhile DiGiallonardo clocked 4:16.79 at the Arcadia (California) Invitational a week earlier on April 11.

That’s not to mention Livingston’s Finn Schretenthaler, the defending State A champ.

But who says no? Not Delaney and not co-distance coach Matt Seeley.

“He is also kind of fearless,” Seeley said. “He would just go for it in races and at times stagger across the finish line. He would take on anybody. That’s something I think is common in all distance runners, that ability to just push themselves to the edge.”

It doesn’t start on meet day.

“So much of what you have to do is by yourself,” Seeley said. “It’s dark out; you’re running before school or after school. There’s no crowd; there’s nobody cheering.”

A couple things line up in DiGiallonardo’s favor. One is the BTC All-Comers indoor meet at Montana State on Feb. 7, where he finished the 1,600 fourth — Bozeman runners swept the top three places — and Piseno was fifth and Schretenthaler, sixth.

Another is what happened at last year’s State A meet.

“Freshman year at the end of his track season I think he ran 4:48 or something (4:50.99), and I remember him saying, ‘My ultimate goal is set the school record,’ ” Delaney said. “And I tried real hard to keep a serious face and said, ‘Good goal.’ It’s Kyle Wies.

“Three years later he goes and does it as a junior. He’s put in all the work; he deserves it.”

Wies had set the school record of 4:23.9 at the 1997 State A meet.

“It was really fun breaking the school record last year,” DiGiallonardo said. “That was always a huge goal. After that I just wanted to get faster.”

He has. On March 28 he clocked 9:37.03 in the 3,200 at the Blue Devil Invite, breaking the school record of 9:46.47 set by Fritz Friesz in 2003. DiGiallonardo, who took fourth in the 3,200 at last year’s State A, lowered the mark to 9:29.22 on April 28 at the Pilcher Top 10.

These marks, along with his 3.99 grade-point average — “89 percent in Chemistry sophomore year; couldn’t convince him to bump it up,” he said — brought college attention. DiGiallonardo committed to Michigan Tech, an NCAA Division II program. He plans to study aerospace engineering.

Saturday at the Nelson-Thomas ABC meet on his home track, he plans to run the 800 and 1,600. At state in Laurel in a couple weeks, he’ll run the 1,600 and 3,200 for the final times as a prep. Schretenthaler, Piseno, Hardin’s Ben Bird — they'll have company.

“He would look up to these fast runners in the state; they would be his idols,” Seeley said. “To now being in the position as a senior and have a chance to win a state title, in either the mile or the two-mile, is pretty cool.”

Sports Editor Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 406-758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.

Polson's David DiGiallonardo nears the finish line in the boys' race at the Flathead Invitational at Rebecca Farm on Friday, Sept. 5. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)

Casey Kreider