The "Run-Down": State Meet - Pasco

 

The course was in perfect condition. The weather did more than just cooperate. The competition was in place and waiting for a challenge for us. 15 of the finest teams in Washington 2A were there to toe the line with our boys. Dozens of the finest individual 2A girls were ready to challenge the rolling hills of Sun Willows Golf Course along with Senior Kendall Utter. The races were on! And the races were arguably the best 2A races ever.

 

Like most Cross Country Championships, there are some mixed emotions after competitors surge past the finish line. Today was no exception. Although individual Panthers may have fallen short of their ideal performance, many walked away finding some great facets of their efforts, knowing they gave everything they had on this day.

 

Our Varsity boys ran with a lot of heart. Sophomores Sean Eustis and Isaac Stinchfield ran near their best races of the season, with Sean in 23rd place (16:31.8) and Isaac in 90th (17:19.1). Sean was the 4th sophomore across the line; Isaac was the 21st, but just a mere 10 seconds off of being the 14th. Junior Noah Collins took on the leadership position of pacing teammates Senior Michael Huck and Sophomore Josh Banks through the perfect first mile, before breaking away and passing a few runners the last mile. Senior Brendan Casey's first mile was also to strategy, but running par for the course today was not in the cards for him. With ambitions of being in the top ten team race, the Panthers ran a little short and were handed last place. There were some bright spots when digging deep into the numbers, such as: We were just 21 points from catching a couple teams as we actually posted a better score than last year's 15th place effort. (Our score in the girls' race would have placed us 11th!) Looking at times, we still averaged 5 seconds faster than 1999's 11th place in state team! Our times shuffled into the 2007 race would have had us at 6th place!!! Also, scoring through 3 runners, we were in 11th place, just 5 points behind our friends at WF West. They ended up in the coveted 10th place.

 

The most exciting head to head race of the day involved our own Senior Dylan Croeni. Knowing if things were really clicking for him, it would take a superhuman effort from defending State Champion Scott Carlyle to beat him to the finish line. With the first mile being surprisingly conservative for the pack at just under 5:00, Dylan and Carlyle were rarely a step or two away from each other. At mile two, although they had broken the pack, Dylan was visibly not quite the fine-tuned, well-oiled machine we were hoping for this day. But as all great runners, this did not stop Dylan from exerting every ounce of energy to break the will of the defending champ. Late in the final mile, Dylan captured the lead and put the pressure on. Three steps ahead at the three mile mark was about the largest lead he could muster as he crested the hill heading for the finish line. Both runners found it difficult to stay on their feet in the finish chute, but only after Carlyle dug deeper than he ever had to slip past Dylan and defend his title. In his own words, he had not had any competition like that all year long. It is doubtful that they were ever more than 2 seconds apart thorough out the whole race. The best numbers to boast about regarding Dylan's race that it was the fastest 2nd place time ever in 2A for 5K... a whole 20 seconds better than the previous best 2nd place finisher.

 

For our lone girl competitor, Kendall showed that she is a much better runner than she was last year. 52 weeks earlier, she placed 67th with a time of 21:08. Today she bettered that time by 19 seconds, but she found herself a few places back, upping the ante on her own school record (20:49.1). Initially she was disappointed that she did not reach her goal, but a few minutes later realized the satisfaction of setting a new school record. This is one more piece of evidence that the competition this year was better than ever before at this meet.

 

7 hours of driving to watch some someone race for 20 minutes is a lot to expect, but we had a tremendous number of parents, relatives and teammates get up well before the sun did and took the Pasco pilgrimage to cheer on the Panthers. This was awesome; we truly had championship support for our team at this meet. Next year's goal? Get both teams there and do even better than any Panther team this century.

 

Coach Terry L. Howard

 

Here are the line scores:

 

Varsity Boys		5000 M
Dylan	2nd	15:31.9
Sean	23rd	16:31.8
Isaac	90th	17:19.1
Noah	136th	18:41.7
Brendan	137th	18:43.7
Josh	140th	19:37.3
Michael	141st	20:07.6
	of 141
Varsity Girls
Kendall	74th	20:49.1	P.R. - School Record
	of 145