Left photo by Chris Drummond/Right photo by Sam Thiel Left: Lakeview’s Ethan Schwankl competes in the 1600 meters during the Class A meet on June 10 at St. Michael-Albertville High School. Right: Lakeview’s Ethan Schwankl hits an approach shot during the Class A meet on June 15 at Pebble Creek Golf Club in Becker.

COTTONWOOD — For some high schoolers, the summer months are a time to relax and unwind from a long school year. For others, such as Lakeview’s Ethan Schwankl, it’s spent constantly on the go from one activity to another.

Schwankl, who just finished his junior year, has had a whirlwind last few weeks. Playing on both the Lakeview boys golf team and competing on the track and field team this past spring, Schwankl first saw the section meets for golf and track and field get crammed next to each other due to inclement weather.

“I think it was for sure interesting with having the second day of golf sections getting moved to a Friday [June 3] because I was doubling this year with track and golf, so it put me in kind of a tough situation where I was golfing Wednesday, then I was at section track on Thursday, but was back up the next morning to golf really early on Friday,” Schwankl said. “It just made it a little more interesting but after those three days it felt like everything moved a lot smoother.”

Schwankl was able to qualify for the state meet in both sports. At the Class A track and field meet on June 9-10, Schwankl would place 13th in the 1600 meters with a time of 4:34.24 and placed eighth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:59.53 to earn a medal. Then just four days later, he was at the Class A golf meet with his team. Schwankl fired a two-day total of 174 (86-88) as the Lakers earned a fourth-place finish.

Schwankl said it was a great experience to compete at state for both sports.

“It was awesome,” Schwankl said. “It’s what I love to do so it was super easy, my teammates made it awesome and it was really cool to have the experience in both.”

Schwankl added it was special to be able to be at the state golf meet with his teammates.

“We had some moments that we’ll never forget,” Schwankl said. “It was really awesome.”

Now, Schwankl is turning his attention back to running. With his senior season of cross country approaching in a couple of months, Schwankl wanted to take part of his summer training to a higher level – 7,723 feet to be exact.

Schwankl will participate in the High Altitude Distance Camp at Western Colorado University on July 17-22 in Gunnison, Colorado. A camp designed for middle school and high school athletes and coaches, athletes will participate in daily runs with current Western Colorado runners and coaches as well as day hikes in the mountains and pool, yoga and weightlifting sessions.

Schwankl said he’s always been dedicated to running and added training at the higher altitude will benefit him when he competes in meets this fall.

“For cross country, I’ve always been big into the sport, so I decided this summer to put some extra time into it and focus on that for next fall,” Schwankl said. “The high altitude training is something distance runners like because it helps their body function on the lower level of oxygen. I’m going up there to get used to that so when I get back down to the level where we live at, it will seem a lot easier to run and I’ll gain a lot more fitness.”