Annie Hill set the Montana all-class record at the state cross country meet (Photo: Chuck Aragon)

The turquoise running shirt has been sitting in a box, unopened, for two years. The color is loud, but the purpose the shirt serves is quiet … and effective.

Indeed, even though the shirt has yet to be worn, it has already provided motivation for Annie Hill, a sophomore at Glacier High (Kalispell, Mont.).

Every time a Glacier runner passes a minute barrier, an informal ceremony is held among the cross country team. The old shirt is handed in, and the new one is worn.

Hill, a two-time state champion in cross country who is ranked No. 5 in the nation, is the only one on her team wearing the hot-pink under-17 shirt, and she vows to somehow go less than 16 minutes at some point.

Her personal best in the three mile is 16:25. And she has the Montana all-class record for a state championship meet with a time of 16:30.

“She runs with our top boys at practice, and they are in the 16(-minute) range,” Glacier assistant coach Bree Fuqua said. “She stays with them for most of their workouts.”

The next big race for Hill, who is 5-foot-2 and 95 pounds, is the invitation-only Foot Locker West Regional on Dec. 5 in Walnut, Calif. It’s a 5,000-meter race with rolling hills and two steep climbs. The trail is 80 percent dirt.

In addition to Montana, top runners are invited from Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The top 10 runners will advance to the Foot Locker Nationals the following weekend in San Diego. Last year, Hill finished eighth at the national meet.

Two weeks ago, Hill finished first in the Nike Nationals Northwest Regional in Boise, Idaho, in a time of 17:32 for 5K. The Nike and Foot Locker national meets are on the same day so she will not compete in the Nike event.

Jacob Deitz, 30, who started coaching Hill last season, said he’s fortunate to have a runner like her on his roster.

“You usually only get to work with kids like this once in your career, so I got to start this early,” Deitz said. “Most sane people have a filter that turns on when the going gets tough, when there’s pain. But with Annie, she has guts. She pushes through that, goes harder. That filter is not there for her.”

ACCIDENTAL RUNNER

Hill’s running career started, indirectly, when Glacier High Athletic Director Mark Dennehy wanted to run a half-marathon as part of his bucket list. Dennehy needed a co-conspirator, though, so he got Micah Hill, who is Annie’s father and Glacier’s assistant principal, to join him in the Snow Joke Half-Marathon.

It’s a February race, and it’s in Montana, meaning it was 10 below for Micah’s first race. Even so, Micah caught the running bug, and it spread to his entire family – wife Nicole and the kids, in order, Noah, Annie and Simon.

Annie was in the fifth grade when Micah started running, and she would provide support during training, riding her bike and handing him water bottles as needed.

By the next year, Annie was running, too, and her competitive fire had been lit. Pretty soon that blaze would be impossible to extinguish.

“If you knew her back then, you could see right away where this (her running career) was going,” said Lauren Harmon, a running teammate at Glacier. “She continues to amaze me daily. She is so dedicated – there’s nothing to compare her to …When people think she doesn’t have anything left to give, she blows them away.”

Annie Hill, shown at the Mountain West Classic meet in Missoula, is aiming to return to the Foot Locker Nationals (Photo: Vo Von Selen)

MONTANA MADE

Part of what has made Hill such an outstanding young runner is the rugged terrain where she trains and the durable athletes who can successfully navigate those courses.

For years, Hill has been battling against the Morley sisters – Makena and Bryn from Bigfork – and Christina Aragon at Billings Senior. The Morley sisters are in a different class and thus would not run against Hill in the state meet, but they have raced in other competitions, especially Bryn, who is also a sophomore. Makena, now a freshman the University of Montana, was a four-time Gatorade Cross-Country Runner of the Year for her state. Aragon, now a senior, has won several state titles in track, and all of those runners have had success running in national events.

“Montana breeds tough people,” Deitz said. “The weather is cold, and yet Annie’s still out there training. We have Glacier National Park virtually in our back yard, so there are a lot of good mountains to climb.”

Hill scaled a mountain – figuratively at least – last May, when she won her first state title in track. It was a two-day meet at Legends Stadium, just a few minutes from Glacier High. On the first day, Hill lost the state final in the mile by two seconds, finishing second. Later that same day, she lost the 400, also by two seconds, finishing third.

The next day, Hill lost the 800-meter race by a little less than two seconds, finishing second.

All those agonizingly close losses came against the same runner – Aragon. Hill’s confidence was wavering, and her conditioning was tested by the heat and all those races.

“I was trying to be optimistic, but it was stressful,” Hill said. “I knew it was my last chance to win a state title (as a freshman in track).”

Added Deitz: “Annie was beaten up emotionally.”

Hill, though, had some advantages. For starters, she has a friend whose house is a few steps from the stadium, and that’s where Hill went to cool off in between races. In addition, her parents were on the track with her, “helping me with my mental attitude,” and she hugged them just before she jumped on the line for her two-mile race.

Hill usually runs from the lead, while Aragon waits for her impressive finishing kick. This time, though, HiIl made her move first, extending her lead with three laps to go and never looking back.

“I had to go before she did, and I knew I had to keep going,” Hill said. “I couldn’t slow down. (Aragon) is a determined runner. I can usually feel her breathing down my neck.”

Hill not only beat Aragon in that race, she did so by an impressive 22 seconds.

“I felt a lot of relief (to win),” Hill said. “It was really nice to know I had the state title.

” This year in cross-country, Hill has a 4-0 record against Aragon.

FUTURE STAR?

Hill likes Gummy Bears as her post-race treat, but that’s one of the few ordinary things about her. She’s a 4.0 student, taking courses such as AP European History. She also plays violin and piano in the school orchestra and has experience singing in a choir. And she’s also old-school in a sense – she watches retro sit-coms such as I Love Lucy on her iPad at breakfast.

Hill doesn’t have the whole college thing figured out yet, but she said that something along the lines of physical therapy could be her career path. She wants to stay fairly close to home for college but wouldn’t mind leaving the state.

“I could see her running for Oregon a couple of years from now,” said Harmon, her teammate. “She could run for any college she wants. She can run pro. Everything she wants is right there for her to choose from.”

Deitz, though, is more cautious when discussing Hill’s future.

“I don’t like to predict that – call me superstitious – professional running is a long road,” Deitz said. “My goal is to keep her healthy all four years.

“Running is not necessarily a fun team sport. It’s about how much you put into it. But she has a ton of heart. When she (beat Aragon at state in the two-mile race), she brought me to tears.”