The "Run-Down": Adidas XC Classic
Previously labeled by Panthers as the Concordia Meet, the Adidas XC Classic at Fern Hill Park (NE Portland) ranks up there as one of the major highlights of the year. The previous day's record rainfall after a long drought did not slow the course down a bit. We were hoping for record races on this day; we fell a little short of Panther records, but we had many impressive results.
Juniors Sydney Hickey and Serene Dunn led things off in the Future Varsity race. Sydney's 39 second PR was more than enough to incite post-race celebrations of jumping up and down with a mile wide smile, along with a call home to inform the family of the memorable moment. Official results mess up her time to the bad side, so coach's 24:09 will stand as her impressive PR. Serene chipped a couple of more seconds off of here PR as she hit the finish line in 25:55.
For the Future Varsity boys, one "current varsity" moved down to accommodate his schedule; Junior Thomas Normandeau. Pre-race hopes of a victory for him came to fruition, as he successfully to made up 10 seconds on Camas' Taryk Boyd with just three quarters of a mile to go. Thomas took the lead with 300 meters to go (as they were both lapping other runners) and held on to a less than 2 second victory. His time of 16:48.7 propels him into individual state qualifying expectations. The rest of the race was marred by having exactly 500 finishers that clogged up the course and the finish chute, but Senior Darian Tierney and Sophomore Rusty Shiluk managed to squeak out season's bests.
Upon hearing the news of Thomas' victory, our varsity girls displayed huge smiles of excitement at the starting line. Although the results of their race were not perfect, we had a whole lot more to smile about than get discouraged over. With lead runner Sophomore Karina Miller being hampered by a knee issue this past week and then rolling her other ankle mid-race, the next five Panthers did more than compensate to make this our fines team effort of the season. Junior Paige Roberts "took the bull by the horns" and race to the fasted Panther time in 2 years. Her 21:25.3 barely moves her into individual state qualifying territory according to athletic.net. Not far behind was Freshman Meredith Collins. Meredith keeps moving up on the team, and today she was our 2nd girl. 22:01.2 was her official time, some 74 seconds faster than the PR she established 46 hours earlier! Fellow Freshman Yaneli Martinez returned to action in style by posting a 22:05.5. Two juniors rounded out the top five: Hannah Wright and Megan Anderson. Hannah's near 30 second season best was a solid race, even though hampered by a couple of little trips out on the course. Megan continues to develop into a league caliber runner as she catapulted over the 23's and into the mid 22's - this was a day to remember for her as she posts a 91 second PR! Classmate Brooke Croeni also competed tough as she battled stomach cramps throughout most of the 5000 meter course, breaking 24 minutes for the second time in her life. Today we proved that any combination of five of our top seven girls can post efforts worthy of respect in our league, looking good enough to qualify for state. This is a trait of a solid team!
During the boys "Elite" race, the crowd got a glimpse of National superstar Andrew Gardner (panther from Mead HS) as he zoomed through the course in record time (14:45.5). This athlete pulled a huge crowd through a "too fast" mile where Senior Isaac Stinchfield ran probably the fasted first mile ever (4:47) for Washougal. Well, that was a little too much for him to handle as classmate Sean Eustis conserved energy with a 4:53 and caught him by the two mile mark, and moved up to 14th place with a 15:43.9 finish. Although a bit disappointed that a PR was not achieved, his new season's best does jump him up to 3rd in the 2A state rankings. Isaac duplicated his time form last year and placed 18th. But the star of the show for the Varsity boys was Sophomore Nicolas Velardi. In spite of voicing pre-race concerns about not feeling well, he ran very well! A long awaited PR finally came as he flirted with 18 minutes. His 18:04.6 was the kind of time we needed from him to give the panther confidence in qualifying the team for state. Freshman Bailey Duncan was our solid fourth runner. Junior Anthony Velardi achieved another PR (coach's 18:58 is more accurate than his official time). Freshman Collin Manning ran well despite cold symptoms this week. Sophomore Jacob Bowen was 26 seconds faster than Thursday's PR day.
It was not a perfect day, but it sure was a great one! Our next display of how hard and smart we have been working is scheduled for Thursday at Hockinson Meadows for our All-League Meet. Races start at 3:00.
Coach Terry L. Howard
line scores will come later: