Newport Harbor’s Cole Ridenour is a top-tier triathlete

For three years at Newport Harbor High, junior Cole Ridenour has been one of the well-kept secrets at the school.

Ridenour is an exceptional triathlete, but even those close to him are still waiting to hear the whole story. Newport Harbor boys’ cross-country coach Nowell Kay said Ridenour ran for the Sailors his entire freshman year without mentioning his participation in triathlon to him.

“He does not talk about [triathlon] hardly at all at school,” Kay said. “If you ask him about it, he’ll say, ‘Yeah, I had a race,’ but he does not talk about it hardly at all, unless you ask him.

“It’s funny because I know that he is super proud of it, but he doesn’t talk about it, which is interesting.”

Ridenour finished 2018 as the top-ranked triathlete for the 16- and 17-year-old age group in the nation. He will compete for the United States in the International Triathlon Union World Triathlon Grand Final in Lausanne, Switzerland, this summer. The competition takes place from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1.

Sprint triathlons give Ridenour the opportunity to work on his speed. The distances include a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer (12.42 miles) bike ride and a five-kilometer run.

Ridenour enjoys all kinds of exercise, and he said he fell in love with the triathlon because of what it teaches him about his own body.

“I really like doing all three because doing all three disciplines is honestly the best thing that you could do for your body,” Ridenour said. “It’s really good because it uses all different muscle groups, and it really strengthens you, and you feel refreshed. When you go from one sport to another sport, you actually feel almost stronger than if you were just doing repetitive motion.”

Of the three legs, the running turned out to be the most challenging for Ridenour to hold his ground against the competition.

That is how Ridenour ended up running cross-country and track and field for the Sailors. While others like two-time Daily Pilot Boys’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year Alexis Garcia carried a higher profile in the program, Kay said that Ridenour’s time on the team has been mutually beneficial.

“He started doing cross-country, and he has gotten so much better,” Kay said. “His freshman year, he was not very good. This last year, he broke 16 minutes for three miles, and he’s probably like our No. 3 returning kid, I would say, going into next year.

“His running has improved dramatically, even his form with his running.”

Ridenour said that his cross-country teammates respect his primary athletic interest, even if they do not entirely understand it. He added that if he were not a triathlete himself, he would have a hard time conceptualizing what goes into it.

“It’s good to run with [my cross-country teammates] because some of the guys on the team, definitely a few of them are faster than I am right now,” Ridenour said. “If I run with them, I can improve, and that’s going to help my triathlon run a lot.”

There were in-house advantages to picking up the event. Ridenour’s parents, Tray and Elyse, both have a background in triathlon. His father earned a degree in exercise physiology. He now trains people for a living through his business, which is called Body Connection.

Together, Ridenour’s parents have served as his personal triathlon coaches since he picked up the sport at age 10.

His father is his primary coach on the bike, the portion of the triathlon that Ridenour considers to be his strongest leg.

Ridenour began swimming at age 5. His swim coach is Lexie Kelly, who has been an assistant swim coach for the Newport Harbor aquatics program.

The bike leg regularly gives Ridenour, who is sponsored by the Costa Mesa-based bike shop Two Wheels One Planet, his advantage. He feels that he is becoming an all-around triathlete.

“I’ve always been probably the strongest on the bike, but now it is kind of evening out,” Ridenour said. “I’m pretty solid on all three [parts], and that’s kind of another reason why I do it. If I was really solid in one, and I [was not good] at the other two, I would probably consider doing something different, but I feel like I’m pretty solid in all three.”

To keep him on track with his training, Ridenour wears a sophisticated waterproof watch. It gauges his performance as a biker, swimmer and runner. The training is demanding, and his watch can be, too.

“This watch gets kind of bossy,” Ridenour said. “I’ll be sitting in class, and it will tell me to move.”

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andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner