The "Run-Down": Ridgefield @ Home???

 

Lions and tigers and Bears, Oh My! As mentioned from our last home meet, we definitely appear to be confused where our home course is. Thanks to the black bear sightings at Round Lake and Lacamas Lake Heritage Trail, we had to follow the Yellow Brick Road to Cottonwood Beach where the only carnivores we could find were the Panthers hungry for a victory - devouring an unusual vegetarian meal of spuds.

 

On a day that we were not specifically targeting PR's as we prepare for Saturday's big race, we produced a shocking 9 black course PR's against Ridgefield; only one second away for Sophomore Blake Roberts bumping that total up to double digits. 3 of those nine were PR's on ANY COURSE! On this near perfect day for racing, the boys racked up a near perfect score of 15-48. The girls had a little bit more of a challenge against a much improved team, but still posted a 23-36 victory.

 

Missing two of our regular scorers, our girls still captured 6 of the top 8 places. Two of them were life time performances from freshman Meredith Collins and Junior Sydney Hickey. Meredith moved up to the 3 girls on the team by running 23:15, and Sydney broke 25 minutes for the first time as she gracefully cruised across the finish line in 24:48. These two girls are on track for huge orange course PR's on the weekend. Black course PR's came from Sophomore Karina Miller (by two whole seconds), Junior Paige Roberts (13 seconds) and our Birthday Girl Junior Hannah Wright (6 seconds). We were a bit concerned about Hannah making it to the race as she appeared to develop a slight temporary case of Alzheimer's on her 17th, forgetting that we had a bus ride lined up to take us to the park. Fellow Junior Megan Anderson was also impressive today as she was just a handful of seconds from her Black PR as she made racing look easy. The fitness indicators of today definitely forecast that Saturday's performance should turn a lot of heads in our District.

 

For the boys, the gracious teamwork of the upperclassmen helped produce had a surprise winner: Sophomore Nicolas Velardi, racing to victory in 19:24. Freshman Bailey Duncan was just a few steps behind to enjoy a second place finish; his time of 19:29 was a Black Course PR. Other black course PR's came from Junior Anthony Velardi and Freshman Jordon Hogewoning. Sophomore Jacob Bowen executed an encore exhibition to his Runner of the Week performance at Hockinson and produced another PR on ANY COURSE by 3 seconds.

 

As plans are to hold nothing back on Saturday, times should fly for both the girls and boys at the Adidas Classic at Fernhill Park in NE Portland. At that time, the rest of the world will be well informed on how good we really are.

 

  

Coach Terry L. Howard

 

line scores will come later: