Running has always been a part of Powell High School senior Kinley Cooley’s life, and she made it official to continue her storied career at the collegiate level after signing her letter of intent on Feb. 5 to compete at Montana State University in Bozeman this fall.

Signing with the Bobcats marked the next step in Cooley’s progression from primarily a swimmer who ran races with her mom, through successes and struggles, to one of the state’s best distance runners due, in part, to her swim training.

STARTING OUT

From a young age Cooley held two passions, swimming and running.

“I grew up swimming and thinking I was going to go to the Olympics for swimming,” Cooley said. “My mom (Kodi) has always been a runner since I can remember, and she signed me up for this one run where it was glow in the dark. I only did it because she told me there were going to be prizes.”

Cooley ran that glow-in-the-dark race, her first 5K, in first grade.

“I ran my first 5K with my mom and her friend, and I did terrible. But I had fun because it was something to do with my mom, it was our special thing because (my sister) Karee was too little to do it,” Cooley said.

That first run snowballed Cooley’s competitive nature, and she continued to enter events and finished faster each time, eventually winning those prizes she sought.

She continued on that path throughout elementary school until she eventually reached Powell Middle School and joined the cross country team, finding another aspect of running she loved once she found a team to bond with.

“It’s completely different running on a team than it is doing fun 5Ks on your own,” Cooley said. “It’s a way different atmosphere and way more fun to work with other people and just have an organized practice.”

Despite her love of running, Cooley still felt a desire up until her eighth grade year to compete in swimming instead of cross country once she reached high school, but that eighth grade cross country season changed her mind.

“I just fell in love with the atmosphere on the team, and all the people because I just feel like cross country, there’s no drama in it like there is a lot of other sports. It’s just so raw and real, because it’s just you versus the clock and all these other people want you to do well and you want them to do well,” Cooley said. “So I just fell in love with those people mainly.”

HIGH SCHOOL CAREER

Entering high school Cooley was already one of the top runners on the Powell High School team her freshman season, creating a strong dynamic alongside senior Kabrie Cannon, who helped set up Cooley’s future success.

“Kabrie was so incredible to run with and have as a resource my freshman year. Because she’s just one of those people that I felt knew a lot about running, knew a lot about taking care of yourself and knew a lot about making it fun,” Cooley said. “It was always just, you do sports in high school because they’re meant to be fun. I think Kabrie as a senior leader helped build that atmosphere on the team.”

Following her freshman year and the graduation of Cannon’s senior leadership, Cooley tried to follow in those same footsteps, making each practice fun while also making sure the Panthers were still competing hard each day.

Success started to find Cooley in her sophomore year, when she rose up the ranks and started placing near the top in each race while first breaking under 20 minutes and breaking the school record.

That season ended with Cooley finding individual success, finishing seventh at state and helping the Panthers to a third place finish as a team.

“I had that stellar sophomore season and I was like, maybe this can go somewhere, like there’s a possibility I could run at the next level,” Cooley said.

The following season Cooley was less successful than expected, dealing with medical issues that led to a difficult cross country season for her despite the Panthers claiming their first state title since 2010.

“During cross country junior year it was really hard not running good times consistently after such a great season before. It was just like, ‘what’s going on, what’s wrong with me?’ It was really discouraging. It makes you want to give up because you’re working hard and you’re not seeing any positive results,” Cooley said.

Following the fall season Cooley was able to solve her medical problems, posting a strong time at Nike Cross Regionals in Boise, Idaho. That led to a strong winter indoor track season and outdoor track season to reignite her passion before her senior year.

“It was just relieving in a way to just be like, ‘OK, everything’s fine,’” Cooley said. “I think it made me fall back in love with running because it just makes you appreciate the hard times you had because it makes the good times seem that much better.”

In her cross country senior season, Cooley raced her way to the top, lowering her school record down to 18:26.8 at the Powell Golf Club in October, before winning the 3A state title in Cheyenne to become the first PHS runner, boy or girl, to win an individual cross country title.

COACHES IMPACT

From swimming to cross country Cooley has had a variety of coaches impact her life, including both high school cross country coaches Ashley Hildebrand and Tracy McArthur.

“They’re like my grandmas, my moms, I always go to their room to steal their food,” Cooley said. “They’re such amazing supportful people. I’ve never had that much support or heard of that much support from a coach. Because yeah they have criticism, but for the most part, they are there to build you up after the race and make you feel good.”

And Cooley hasn’t lost her love of swimming. She’s continued to compete through USA Swimming, continuing to be impacted by coach Jerry Rodriguez who helped build Cooley’s competitive nature.

“I grew up with Jerry as my swim coach, and he’s a little bit like the opposite of what coach Hildy and coach McArthur are, but it really gives you such a strong work ethic,” Cooley said. “He is always going to have something for you to work on and always going to give you something to make you better … I owe it to him because he’s the reason I’m a hard worker and he’s the reason I’m so dedicated.”

CHASING RECORDS, FUTURE IMPACT

Whether it be on the cross country course or on a track indoors or outdoors, Cooley holds nearly every distance record imaginable at Powell High School, including the indoor and outdoor 1600 and 3200 records on top of the cross country mark.

She attributes her success in those records to her cross-training, her not-so-secret secret of swimming alongside running.

“I think that is really one of my secrets, well not really a secret because I tell everybody about it, but I swear by swimming,” Cooley said. “It’s so easy on your body, it’s so much different than running but it’s still such a great workout and I think it’s helping me so much. Swimming is my roots, that’s where I learned to work hard and where I learned that you’ve got to go to practice every day even if you don’t feel like it.”

While she has continued to break records on the track through her training, Cooley is hopeful she has left a lasting impression on the next generation of runners to come through PHS.

“Kenna (Jacobsen), Salem (Brown) and I, all of us, are sad to be going but I know that we each have had our role on the team and we try to make it something fun every day,” Cooley said. “We did a couple practices with the middle schoolers, and we want them to know that it’s OK, you don’t need to be winning. Because I know in middle school how hard it is to just want to win, win, win, and that’s all they think you’re going to do. You’re good in middle school and then you get to high school. It’s really hard to accept the reality that you’re racing at a different level and you’re not going to win every race … You’re here to run a faster time than you ran last time, and that’s the important part, is running faster than you did last time and having fun.”

BOZEMAN CONNECTION

Cooley said it has always been a dream of hers to compete at the Division I or II level at either the University of Wyoming or MSU, but after reaching out to MSU following her junior year there was uncertainty.

“Last year I reached out after cross country and it was definitely a no go,” Cooley said. “It was difficult to kind of accept and come to terms with the times, because at that point when I went on my visit, their walk-on standards were crazy. So I was trying to look for other options, but stayed in contact because you never know what could happen.”

Cooley earned attention from the Bobcats when she broke into the 18s her first race this past fall in Billings, eventually being offered a spot on the cross country team in October.

She said she held offers from other places that were perfect fits in other ways, but it was the environment and engineering program that fully helped influence her decision.

“I really did end up choosing Bozeman because when I went on my visit I felt such a connection with the girls, and I love the atmosphere of campus and their engineering program is so strong, so I’m excited for that,” Cooley said.

She said she will be pursuing environmental engineering, specifically environmental remediation with regards to helping with cleaning up and restoring contaminated environments such as oil spills.

Cooley said she is hopeful she can continue to bring down her track times to become a traveling athlete on the indoor and outdoor track teams.

She will compete at the Division I level in the Big Sky Conference, continuing her love of running at the collegiate level.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get worn out of running,” Cooley said. “I just love the way running makes me feel when I get done with a run … I’ll always love running.”