ILWACO — When Ilwaco track coach Sarah Taylor walked into her office a few weeks ago she was surprised to find two large boxes on her desk. Inside were two and a half dozen pairs of brand new track spikes.

“It was just, wow, a really nice surprise,” she said.

The shoes were a gift from Ilwaco High alum Dylan Wirkkala of Portland, who graduated IHS in 2007, and is now an independent sales rep for NW Alliance Group, a shoe distributor that handles Saucony, one of the top track show makers.

“I had to pick them up from one of my accounts,” Wirkkala explained. “It’s typical at the end of the season, as they can swap shoes they didn’t sell. But it wasn’t possible in this case so they were just sitting in my office, needing a good home.”

And they’ve already been put to some good use. Back on March 31, IHS junior Marcos Mendoza won the 1,600 and set a new personal record time of 5:04.65 in a pair.

“I’d been running in ‘well used’ spikes, so getting new ones really was a really good prize,” said Mendoza after the race. “This was my first time using them and they feel great.”

And Taylor has a pretty simple system for those using the shoes.

“Whoever needs them, uses them,” Taylor said, noting that over the years she has collected old, used, and sometimes, new spikes for general use amongst the team, but has never received such a windfall as this. “Of course we don’t have all the sizes, but we do the best we can.” She also noted that last year Wirkkala also donated a box full of training shoes.

Like most specialized sports equipment, track spikes aren’t cheap, usually running around $60 — a cost not all families can justify.

“I know there are a lot of kids that live the Peninsula that can’t necessarily afford track spikes. I was one of those kids,” said Wirkkala. “Funny story: When I was a freshman in 2003, someone donated a pair of Suacony trainers that I got. Kinda funny to make it come fill circle there.”