The "Run-Down": Saxon Invite
Bus ride activities are a critical part of the XC season. Our bus' trip down I-5 was shared with many Duck fans heading for Autzen Stadium, but we settled for the Mission Street exit to race at Bush Pasture Park in the heart of Salem. The bus trip activities included exchanging the first round of Secret Panther Pal gifts, pre-ordering Subway sandwiches and a few capitalizing on valuable "shut eye" time. We were expecting to have to weather through the current heat wave, but we were pleasantly greeted by misty weather as we stepped off the bus at the race site.
The same race schedule from the previous week was implemented, so the first up was our three Future Varsity girls. Our six legged Panther got things off to a fabulous start as two more engaged in their maiden XC voyage. Junior Grace Collins paced herself to a fine race, passing dozens; she focused on just the white jerseys, catching at least seven of them throughout the race. She easily placed in the upper half with an official time of 26:02 (most official times were suspect to being off by a few seconds throughout the day). Junior Exchange student Maxyne Hauser courageously stepped to the starting line to do something she had never done before - run 3 plus miles without stopping! Upon finishing, her face glowed with gratification as she declared her accomplishments as "completely awesome" because she FINISHED! Junior Emma Boyle also negotiated the course in style in the time of 29:36.
Our Future Varsity boys put another six legged Panther to the test. Cheering for them was easy the first mile, since they stayed in their own little pack. After that, Juniors Jacob Bowen picked up the pace ahead of Blake Roberts and other Jacob Smart was hampered by shin pains, but refused to give up. No PR's from this group in this race, but each is determined to make that happen soon.
Our varsity girls were missing our two promising freshman due to illness, so the six panthers to step into start box 16 had all run the race the year before. We managed one PR for the day (Senior Sydney Hickey by 3 seconds in 24:06) but we ran much better as a team of those that raced. Senior Hannah Wright led the way for the second straight week posting equivalent to her second fastest time ever (21:55) and fellow Senior Megan Anderson's 22:44 was also her second fastest time ever. Senior Brooke Croeni redeemed herself from last week's lack-luster race and moved up to our third position (23:27). Sophomore Meredith Collins and Junior Karina Miller finish a few seconds apart to finalize our score, helping the team place 11th of the 19th schools.
As usual, the Varsity Boys race finished up the day. In spite of taking a wrong turn, Senior Thomas Normandeau posted one of the fastest times for Washington 2A runners for the season thus far. Misdirection from a spectator sent Thomas on a 10 second detour, costing him a second consecutive trip to the podium. His 9th place finish (16:36) was one place off from a ribbon. On the bright side, even after another 5 days of competition, Thomas is still holding on to the 3rd fastest Washington 2A time (albeit several key teams have not raced 5K yet). Sophomore Collin Manning cheered on first time varsity friend Freshman Gabe Groom from by his side before wisely stepping off the course as he was protecting injuries. But Senior Anthony Velardi proudly filled his shoes with a noteworthy PR (some 16 seconds) of 18:32. The biggest PR of the day went to Sophomore Bailey Duncan, chopping nearly a minute off of his prior best finishing in 17:50. Just a little bit off Bailey's pace, Junior Nicolas Velardi was semi-content with nearly matching his PR with an 18:05. Wrapping up our scoring 5 for the boys was Freshman Aiden Pullen. His 19:05 was the fourth fastest freshman (if you don't count Summit's Olivia Brooks) on the course of the 19 schools. Our boys places 9th of the 19 school, of which most of them were larger schools.
The highlight on the way back was our stop in Woodburn to cool the Bus' motor and cruise through Jamba Juice and the Nike Factory store where Thomas and Nicolas found some flashy new tights.
Next week, we train to prepare the start of our League Season. We will travel to Ridgefield to take on the Spudders and the Hockinson Hawks on Thursday, September 26th.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Varsity Boys |
|
Mile 1 |
Mile 2 |
5000 M |
|
|
Thomas |
9th |
5:12 |
10:41 |
16:36 |
PR |
|
Bailey |
46th |
5:37 |
11:35 |
17:50 |
PR |
|
Nicolas |
54th |
5:37 |
11:35 |
18:05 |
|
|
Anthony |
66th |
5:53 |
11:56 |
18:32 |
PR |
|
Aiden |
83rd |
6:06 |
12:15 |
19:05 |
|
|
Gabe |
104th |
6:23 |
13:02 |
20:07 |
|
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of 132 |
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Future Varsity Boys |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jacob B |
76th |
6:28 |
13:30 |
20:41 |
|
|
Blake |
98th |
6:28 |
13:31 |
21:03 |
|
|
Jacob S |
116th |
6:28 |
13:32 |
22:02 |
|
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of 214 |
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|
Varsity Girls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hannah |
42nd |
7:00 |
14:16 |
21:55 |
|
|
Megan |
67th |
6:59 |
14:27 |
22:44 |
|
|
Brooke |
80th |
7:15 |
15:02 |
23:27 |
|
|
Meredith |
81st |
7:14 |
15:02 |
23:33 |
|
|
Karina |
85th |
7:01 |
15:18 |
23:39 |
|
|
Sydney |
93rd |
7:23 |
15:22 |
24:06 |
PR |
|
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of 112 |
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Future Varsity Girls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grace |
81st |
8:20 |
16:47 |
26:02 |
|
|
Emma |
152nd |
8:48 |
18:43 |
29:36 |
|
|
Maxyne |
176th |
9:20 |
19:50 |
31:37 |
|
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of 203 |
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