WATERTOWN – One year ago, Micah Holien was coming off an injury-filled junior season. To say that the Great Plains Lutheran senior made up for lost time would be a disservice to all that he has accomplished this past year.

It started last fall when Holien set five school records in football and continued into this spring when he added seven more school records to his impressive resume.

“It’s been going really well this year,” Holien said. “I’m really happy with it.”

Holien lost part of his junior campaign to a torn miniscus and a hip flexor. His accomplishments this season have helped to erase that past frustration.

“I’m just really glad that I could come back and perform as well as I have,” Holien said, “just ’cause last year was a little bit of a letdown.”

Holien’s memorable season began on the gridiron where he set school records for yards in a game, yards in a season, touchdowns in a season, and career yards and touchdowns. He rushed for a whopping 335 yards in one game alone last fall.

Interestingly enough, most of the records he broke belonged to his older brother, Aiden. Naturally, that has led to some interesting conversations.

“Oh, trust me I give him a bad time about that,” the younger Holien said.

Holien was also a key member of the Panthers basketball team, but does not own any records on the hardwood.

Holien is capping off his senior year with arguably his best sport, track and field, where he has been a part of more than a handful of records. Holien is the school record-holder in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash, as well as records in the 400-meter relay, 800-meter relay, 1,600-meter relay, and the sprint medley relay.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Holien said. “This last year has definitely been the most fun I’ve had playing sports.”

The University of Sioux Falls track and field recruit, not only leads most of his opponents around the track, he also leads his Panther teammates in practice as well.

“Starting last year, Micah really started buying into our workouts,” said GPL coach Derrick Ovall. “He was starting to see some results from what he had been working on in practice. He really became one our leaders in practice. He wasn’t taking any reps off and was in the front during all of the workouts.”

For as decorated as Holien is, ironically he still has had a hard time winning individual events on a regular basis. That’s because two of Class B’s premier sprinters, Oliver Fieber of Deuel and Zac VanMeeteren of Hamlin, live right down the road and attend most of the same meets.

“I always race against Oliver and Zac,” Holien said. “As an athlete you always want to be in first, you always want to win as a competitor myself, but I can’t complain losing to people like Oliver. He’s the fastest guy in the state.”

If anything, Holien realizes the fact that facing elite competition helps to bring out his best as well.

“I kind of like it at the same time though, because I know that every time I race against him I’m getting pushed,” Holien said. “I think that’s one thing that’s made me better this season is, I’m racing against the top racers in the whole state every single meet.”

About the only one that has been able to slow Holien down this season is himself.

After getting to off to a stellar start earlier this spring, Holien found himself over-thinking his races. It began to take a toll on him and his times.

“I would run and I would try to run so hard that it just made my whole body so tight, which just made me slower,” Holien said.

He ended up sitting down and taking a few minutes for a time of reflection.

“I had to look at myself and I was thinking, I can’t freak out,” Holien said. “Obviously, I still had goals that I wanted to beat. … The best thing you can honestly do is just relax and run.”

Holien said that he does not stress about his events, realizing the more that’s on his mind, the slower his feet move.

“I really don’t get super nervous before my races and games and stuff like that. … I think the more pressure I put on myself, the worse I can get in my head and just hinder my performance,” Holien said.

That might be the reason he is keeping things in perspective heading into the state meet with his final performances for GPL.

“I think we’re all confident in our abilities and if it ends up not working out that way, it’s not the end of the world,” Holien said. “We’re all just happy on how we performed this season and just hope we can continue it into the state meet.”

After a record-setting senior season, it would only be fitting if Holien saved his best for last this weekend.

“I am really looking forward to the state meet to see where he ends up placing,” Ovall said. “He will definitely be missed, but I am looking forward to watching him next year at USF.”

Naturally, Holien would like to finish on a high note, but like the true team leader that he is, he just wants one more memorable meet with a group of athletes that mean so much to him.

“I’m just going to try to soak in as many memories and just try to take advantage of this last meet with my friends,” Holien said.