Jackson Keyser has come a long ways in the past two years. In his first race at Hood River Valley in 2014, he was the 10th runner on the team and only the third 7th grader. Today, as he stepped to the starting line at the Future Varsity level, he had something to prove. Last week's High School debut at the varsity level in Tillamook did not go as planned. Jackson had an awesome summer and demonstrated that he was varsity material. At Tillamook, he didn't show his best stuff, but today he did. Jackson fearlessly took the lead the first mile and held onto 2nd place. He was our top freshman and the 3rd best in the whole meet. His red ribbon earned is a great symbol of his Redemption.
Bekah managed to tweak her hip flexor last week in our hyper-speed workout. The day before the Hood River Valley meet, she still had some pain. There was some question on whether or not she would or should race. So, she iced down on the bus ride to the east, then she iced 55 of the 63 other Future Varsity girls in the race! By the way, this was her first Cross Country race of her life. She moved up nicely through the race and her 9th place finish in the time of 25:38 (on a very slow course) was fast enough to crack our top 5 time for girls on the day. Bekah's performance has definitely indicated that she is a viable candidate for varsity on our highly competitive team.