Unterreiner named Athlete of the Year

Senior track star Miles Unterreiner named Athlete of the Year
Tacoma Athletic Commission salutes long-distance runner
Marques Hunter
of the Gateway
Published: 10:19AM June 12th, 2008
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Gig Harbor High School senior Miles Unterreiner won the Tacoma Athletic Commission’s Male Athlete of the Year award during the annual Banquet of Champions at the Tacoma Dome last week.

The Athlete of the Year is given to prep athletes who were selected as athlete of the month, or to those who won a state championship.

“It was very special,” Unterreiner said. “The banquet was amazing. There were tons of people there.”

After winning the Class 4A cross country championship last fall and both long-distance events at the state track meet last month, Unterreiner became a “triple crown” champion.

Unterreiner has shown that conditioning year-round pays dividends. With the help of Tides distance coach Patty Ley, he instituted a workout regimen during the winter and summer seasons.

“I just felt in tip-top shape,” he said coming into this year. “The training really made a difference.”

Coupled with another year of maturity and building additional strength, Unterreiner shaved considerable time during cross country and maintained a strong pace in the track distance events.

At the 2006-07 cross country competition, he placed 18th with a time of 16 minutes, 13 seconds. This year he won in 15:39 — a difference of 34 seconds.

Last year, he came close to winning the long-distance races at the state track meet. He finished fourth in the 3,200 in 9:12.90 and fifth in the 1,600 in 4:14.02.

And while his times in those haven’t changed much, the competition couldn’t match his tempo around the track.

Tides track coach Kevin Eager said he couldn’t be more proud of Unterreiner.

“This sport is all about hard work,” Eager said. “Miles has extraordinary talent. But he has never taken that talent for granted. He never looks at what he’s done, he simply looks forward to the next challenge. He has raised the team expectations here to great heights, and when he’s gone, he’ll have left more than records with us.”

Unterreiner will attend Stanford University beginning next fall with an athletic scholarship.

Along with Unterreiner, three other Gig Harbor High School athletes were nominated for Athlete of the Year at the TAC Banquet of Champions.

Tides seniors Bree LeRoy, Anna Kalbrener, both track and field competitors, and sophomore tennis player Christy Sipes received nominations.

LeRoy won the 100 high hurdles at the state track meet, finished second in the long jump and seventh in the high jump.

Kalbrener won the 800 and helped the 1,600 relay team to a fifth-place finish. The Gig Harbor girls took second overall.

Sipes won the state tennis tournament in dominant fashion, defeating Decatur’s Meghan Cassens in straight sets during the finals. Sipes didn’t surrender a single set throughout the entire tournament and lost just seven games in four total matches.

Since the TAC began honoring athletes in 1993, this was the first time a Gig Harbor athlete won the nomination.

Last year, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chapter of the National Football Foundation honored Peninsula Seahawks’ J.D. Neumeister for his success as a defensive back.

The year before, lineman Micah Hannam earned the award. He’s currently an offensive lineman at Washington State University.

Unterreiner second at Golden West

Last weekend, Unterreiner finished second in the 1,600 at the Golden West Invitational in Folsom, Calif.

Unterreiner ran a 4:13.41 and was three-hundredths of a second away from winning the event.

Eager said Unterreiner was “boxed in” during race, making it difficult for him to win.

Since Unterreiner ran nine meters longer than the standard state high school distance of 1,600, conversions put him at 4:11.94, which makes him the state overall leader in that event, Eager said.

Unterreiner will compete in the Nike Outdoor Nationals in the 3,200 — and possibly the 1,600 — in two weeks.
Reach Sports Editor Marques Hunter at 253-853-9246 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it