Cody Helbling didn’t originally plan on running at Idaho. In fact, after a couple years of running for BYU, he decided to give it up completely to focus on academics. Two years later, Helbling is Idaho’s top men’s cross country runner and one of the best in the WAC.
“Based off of what he’s run so far, I think he’s already back to where he’s been before,” Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said. “And I only see him getting that much better. He has the potential to be an NCAA qualifier in cross country and in track.”
Helbling’s road to UI is somewhat of a circle as he started out as high school runner in Coeur d’ Alene, at Lake City High School. While at Lake City, Helbling finished third once and second twice at the Idaho 5A State Cross Country Championship. He also won 16 cross country races through his high school career and competed in the prestigious Footlocker Nationals during his junior and senior seasons.
“He was an outstanding high school runner,” Phipps said. “We were very interested in him at that point but unfortunately for us he decided to go to BYU.”
Helbling said some of the schools pursuing him out of high school included Northern Arizona, Colorado, Boise State, Weber State and Utah, but BYU seemed like the best fit for him.
During his freshman season at BYU, Helbling ran an indoor 3000-meter time of 8 minutes, 15.78 seconds — a time that would rank him fifth all-time at Idaho. But Helbling was never guaranteed a spot in the top seven on a deep Cougar squad.
Despite his success and spot on a prestigious NCAA Division I team, Helbling decided to quit competitive running less than two years into his collegiate career.
“I really enjoyed running but I’m going to school to get an education,” Helbling said. “At BYU, it’s very academically competitive and I guess I just didn’t have what it took at the time. It’s not that I was ineligible or failing out but my grades weren’t where I wanted them to be.”
After his wife graduated from BYU, Helbling said that they wanted to move closer to family so he chose to come to Idaho. He also decided to give Division I running a shot once again, this time with a little more academic experience under his belt.
“He just contacted me and was interested in getting back into running again,” Phipps said. “He contacted me and next thing you know he’s here at Idaho and running amazingly well.”
Helbling hasn’t lost a step since he returned to running. In Idaho’s first meet of the 2013 season — the Clash of the Inland Northwest — Helbling finished 12th out of 85 competitors in 19:04.00 on the 6-kilometer course. He finished 10th out of 87 competitors at the Sundodger Invitational in the 8-kilometer race in 24:14.01. He was sixth out of the collegiate competitors. He finished both races as the top Idaho runner.
“In a way I guess it’s not really surprising because of how well he had been running in high school and (at BYU),” Phipps said. “But it’s hard to say for anybody, after taking a significant period of time off, how well and how quickly it’s going to take that person to bounce back.”
Academics come first for Helbling, who is studying mechanical engineering with the hopes of later attending medical school. But Phipps and his cross country teammates are glad he also chose to get back into running.
“He’s just been fantastic. He’s been an awesome team leader for us, he works super hard in practice, he’s just been the ultimate student athlete for us.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]