Acosta searching for edge

COLUMBUS JUNCTION - Isaac Acosta was born to run. Acosta is consumed with running. It keeps him on edge.

Even in the dead of winter, smack dab on the edge between the cross-country and track and field seasons, not a day goes by when the Columbus Community High School junior doesn't think about running, dream of being outdoors competing, wanting to get better with every step and each passing day.

The edge is where he lives and whatever can take him there, he will do.

Acosta is enlisted in the National Guard and goes to drill once a month along with the midweek workouts. But that's not enough to keep his edge sharp.

So with snow and ice on the ground and temperatures below freezing, Acosta decided to think outside the box to find a new way to stay in shape, something that could give him that edge over the competition when track season begins March 1 with the opening day of practice.

Acosta crept closer to that edge by joining the Muscatine boys swimming team. He is the first Columbus student to swim for the Muskies under a sharing agreement.

Acosta had the time of his life in the sport, making friends, getting exercise for his body, and his brain.

'I'm very excited to be a part of the team,” Acosta said during a break in the recent Grayhound Invitational at the Burlington High School pool. 'Swimming is way different than running. I thought it would maybe be the same. No. It uses your entire body. Everything. It is a lot mental, as well.”

Acosta made great strides in the pool and competed on several of the Muskies relay teams.

'He's convinced himself that this kind of cross training is good for him versus a lot of winter running making it hard on his muscles and bones,” Muscatine boys swimming coach Judd Anderson said. 'He's getting better. He has to learn all the little nuances of competitive swimming, like the turns and starts.”

Acosta's favorite strokes are the freestyle and the 'backstroke because I can breathe the whole time.”

'It's nice to be a part of (a large team),” Acosta said. 'It's helping me mentally and it's also keeping me in physical shape. It makes me feel good. My body feels good. And I still feel good to run.”

Acosta's edge helped him and the Wildcats have a breakthrough season in cross-country. As the Wildcats No. 1 runner all season, he helped Columbus qualify for state as a team for the first time since 2005. Acosta finished 36th in Class 1A in 17 minutes, 51.1 seconds and his team was 14th.

With his confidence and enthusiasm at an all-time high, Acosta wanted to continue that momentum into the winter. But with the prospect of being shut down and shut in for months dulling his edge, Acosta came up with a plan.

'I didn't think it was going to happen, but I told (Columbus cross-country coach Steve Riley) that I wanted to swim and there was no opportunity at Columbus,” Acosta said. 'I realized that Muscatine was maybe the closest.”

Riley contacted Anderson, the coaches talked and Acosta was soon making sacrifices to be a member of the Muskies. He spent nearly an hour and a half each day driving to practice and back. That time increased to three hours on days he woke up at 5:30 for the morning workout.

It has all been worth it to Acosta, who learned how to swim, 'probably when I was like maybe 10 or 11,” and eventually became a lifeguard.

'He's an interesting young man,” Anderson said. 'He's fit in very well. He has a very outgoing personality. He's not timid or shy. He's never swam competitively.”

Competition is Acosta's edge and swimming helped him maintain it so that the extra work will pay off starting Monday for track and, ultimately, next fall for cross-country.

With swimming over, maybe he had some free time for once, but then that might blunt his edge. So winter or not, snow, ice, sleet or not, Acosta sharpens his skills.

'He does run in the cold,” Riley said. 'We have a good group that have been running religiously all winter, and he joined them.”

Since swimming ended, Acosta has been doing a combination of running and Military Muscle - a National Guard fitness program.

'Isaac never has a lot of free time,” Riley said. 'He has been running. Additionally, he is working hard academically. He has some big goals before he graduates from high school.”

Doug Brenneman, The Union, contributed to this story.