Eskomos sprinter can fly with the finest

• Cossalter

Dallas Cossalter is one of the many fleet-footed racers for the depth-laden Eskomos girls track and field team this spring. The Esko junior also runs the 200 and serves on the relay teams as well.

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Although the 100-meter dash lasts just seconds, Dallas Cossalter said that when she gets ahead, she usually stays there.

Much like the Esko team she runs for.

Cossalter is one of the many fleet-footed racers for the depth-laden Eskomos girls track and field team this spring. The Esko junior also runs the 200 and serves on the relay teams as well.

The 5-foot-4 speedster noted she has been on the Esko varsity team since seventh grade, where she has since learned to become a sprinter.

“I used to run the 400, but then found out that sprints were my thing,” Cossalter said Tuesday afternoon at school. “I can hold my speed.”

Perhaps that’s because she has always been active. Since the time she was a little girl growing up near Jay Cooke State Park, Cossalter said she and her family have always been on the move.

Her mother, Jill, enjoys exercising. More days than not, she’ll run long trails in the area even though her daughter likes the smaller runs.

“She loves running,” Jill said. “We’re always doing something. I haven’t gotten her on the trails much yet, but hopefully soon.”

“My mom is an exercise junkie,” Dallas Cossalter said with a laugh.

This winter, however, Cossalter did plenty of her own exercising. Since quitting basketball, Cossalter said she used her spare time to train for track by cross country skiing and running outdoors.

“I toughed out the weather,” Cossalter said, “but I am going along better this year already than all of last year. I’m hoping to go to state.”

That’s certainly a possibility. Already this spring, Cossalter has won the 100 a handful of times, setting her personal-best mark of 13.1 seconds at last Thursday’s Hawk Invitational in Hermantown. Her only fault came Tuesday in Two Harbors when she was disqualified at the start.

“The biggest thing for me is getting out of the blocks,” said Cossalter, who has yet to lose after a clean start. “Once I get ahead, I usually stay ahead.”

Jill Cossalter said the intensity of watching her daughter in the 100 is nerve-racking, explaining as a parent, the bleachers can be an anxious place.

“I probably get more nervous than she does,” says her mother. “I almost don’t want to watch at times.”

Esko Coach Tim Lindquist is confident in Cossalter’s abilities.

“She’s one of the top sprinters in the area,” he said. “We’ve had some great sprinters over the years and she has stepped into that role. She’s right up there.”

Cossalter has two brothers: senior Austin and seventh-grader Dawsen. She also mentioned she’d have no problem beating the pair of baseball players in a footrace any day of the week.

While not having competed individually at state, Cossalter was on Esko’s 400-, 800- and 1,600-meter state relay teams in the past, and she was a member of Esko’s Class A True Team state championship last year.

Also a soccer player, Cossalter was alongside teammate Caitlin Lilly when Esko-Carlton qualified to state last fall.

“She’s such a good athlete who was all over the place all of the time,” Lilly said of her partner. “She played forward, midfield, defense, wherever we needed her. She’s never negative and, generally, is just really fast.”

Tags: track and field, esko, sports