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Photo by John Wagner

When Anthony Davis was looking for a place to continue his running career, he wanted somewhere that felt like home.

More than 2,000 miles away, Davis thinks he found that place.

The Lathrop track standout signed a National Letter of Intent Thursday in the Lathrop library to run track and cross country with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Though Davis looked at more established programs, like Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., Colorado Springs just felt more like home.

“I was actually, the first one I looked at was still D-II, but they were top ranked nationally for both track and cross country. When I went and visited them, they were so big and had already established themselves so well, I didn’t feel like that was a close-knit group of people,” he said. “At Colorado Springs, you can definitely tell, it’s just like Lathrop: everybody knows everybody.”

And Davis will have a chance to get to know everyone early, as he heads down to Colorado Springs in July to start training for the cross country season.

Davis needs a little time before the August start of the season to get acclimated to the higher altitudes he’ll run at as part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

“When I went and visited (in February), I went for a 2 or 3 mile run, I could feel it in my chest, just breathing that high,” he said. “It makes it good, because they do a lot of races in Kansas as well, and when you go from high altitude to low altitude, it increases performance. So, it will be fun to see what levels I can push myself to.”

Davis also will have to push himself in track. In addition to running the 400 and 800-meter, which he ran at Lathrop, Davis may be asked to take part in the decathlon.

Davis, who has personal bests of 2 minutes, 4 seconds in the 800 and 52.82 in the 400, would have to learn the pole vault, high jump and long jump to take part in the decathlon — something he’s more than happy to do.

“I’m very committed to putting in the extra time,” Davis said.

In fact, Lathrop coach Jeff Hebard says that type of work ethic has been a staple of Davis’ time in purple and gold.

“He epitomizes where this program is headed in the next few years, that he’s being rewarded for doing everything the right way. He’s a dedicated athlete, he works hard, he comes to practice every day prepared,” Hebard said. “He’s not a guy who rests on his athleticism. He’s got the hard work behind it, too, that earns him this.

“You take that work ethic and that body and put it together, he’s certainly a candidate to look at the decathlon.”

Davis just wants to do what he can to help out his new team.

“They’re a young program and I just wanted to be part of the process of building up the team,” he said. “They haven’t won any national titles, but they really want to put together a good group of kids that want to achieve that goal.”