Cole Scherer is not a sprinter by choice.

The Bandon junior will line up as the favorite in the 400 meters Friday night at the Coos County Meet. But if he could, he’d much rather log more laps around the track in Friday’s longer races.

Scherer is a distance runner by trade — it runs in the family. But an usual ordeal over the past eight months has limited him to sprint workouts.

He was in the best shape of his life last summer while preparing for the cross country season, and then came down with a mystery fever right as practice was starting up.

Then he was exhausted — so much that he couldn’t run workouts.

He lost the entire cross country season while doctors tried to determine the problem, at first thinking it was mononucleosis.

But no matter what they tried, Scherer’s condition never improved.

It wasn’t until early this year that the problem was properly diagnosed. Scherer had Lyme disease, traced to a tick bite during spring vacation last March, when Scherer was hiking along the Illinois River.

“When I got back, it was infected,” Scherer said.

But the infection went away and Scherer didn’t show any of the other symptoms until late last summer.

Scherer thought he was headed to a standout season in cross country.

“I was running a lot during the summer,” he said. “I felt better than I’ve ever felt.”

Then the fever hit and he was exhausted all the time.

Scherer has been on antibiotics for the past few months, and could be for another half year until the disease is completely gone.

“It’s not a good thing to have, but at least it’s good to know what we have,” said Guy Scherer, Cole’s father, who went through the puzzling months of uncertainty with him last fall.

“He’s showing really slow signs of improvement. The last four weeks, we can see where he is slightly better.”

Cole Scherer has been doing primarily sprinter’s workouts because he has no endurance. He said he can jog several miles now, a big improvement, but can’t race at the longer distances.

Last week, he ran the 800 meters at the Pacific Invitational, and put up an impressive time of 2 minutes, 4.3 seconds. He was in no mood to celebrate.

“It’s probably the worst I’ve felt after a race ever,” he said. “It was pretty bad.”

Even the 400 meters wipes Scherer out most days, but he’ll try to run both the open 400 and a leg on Bandon’s mile relay Friday night.

Fortunately, as bad as Lyme disease has impacted Scherer’s running, it hasn’t had an effect on his other event, the javelin.

He opened eyes on the South Coast by uncorking a throw of 180 feet, 5 inches earlier this month, a mark that matches the best in the state for Class 3A throwers this spring, according to the track and field Web site athletic.net.

That mark is even more amazing considering Scherer broke a bone in his throwing arm this winter when he ran into a wall while playing ultimate Frisbee during a physical education class.

“I lost six weeks of training,” Scherer said.

He almost lost more.

Scherer and his dad were able to convince their doctor to put on just a lower arm cast to protect the healing broken radius bone, rather than one that stretched over the elbow into the upper arm and likely would have cost him any chance of competing in the javelin this spring.

“That saved the season,” said Guy Scherer, who has always been amazed by his son’s ability in the javelin.

“Pound-for-pound, he’s probably one of the best throwers around,” Guy Scherer said of his 140-pound son.

Scherer ranks in the top 10 in the javelin for all classifications.

“I’m surprised at how quick it came back,” he said. “I thought it was going to take me a lot longer.”

If only the running were the same.

Scherer said losing the cross country season was frustrating and only doing sprint workouts most days is very strange.

“It’s totally different,” he said. “I miss the long stuff.”

Bandon coach Jim Boyd is impressed, but not surprised, at how Scherer has adapted to the sprints.

“Nothing that kid does amazes me,” Boyd said. “He is an incredible young man.”

Earlier this season, Scherer decided to try the high jump in a meet. On one day’s practice, he cleared 5-6, which, while not impressive by top high school standards is good enough to share the top ranking in the Sunset Conference.

He had a similarly successful debut in the triple jump, without any practice at all.

Scherer is sticking to the events he knows well Friday night. By the end of the evening, he could have two county titles, though Marshfield’s Will Messerle is expected to challenge him for the javelin crown.

Ideally, next year Scherer will be back at the longer distances as a senior at the county meet.

“We’re hoping he’ll be ready for the 800 by district,” Guy Scherer said. “There’s no way to train for his real races, the 1,500 and 3,000.

“It’s just been a long haul for him.”