The "Run-Down": RA Long @ Lake Sacagawea
Our journey to Longview to race the Jacks and Jills included a little detour to Clark College; this is a familiar event to accommodate members of the Collins family. A couple years ago, we did so for Grace Collin's older brother Noah. I am sure we will continue this tradition for probably 2 more years (until Meredith graduates) but take it back up when Levi hits his Junior year. Despite the detour, we had plenty of time to set up our tent (taken on a last minute decision) and get ready to race. We hit some rain patches on the way up, so we were thankful for the tent.
Sophomore Collin Manning and Senior Anthony Velardi found a good spot for the Panther guys perform their pre-race drills to finalize preparation for victory over the Jacks of RA Long. Also in the race were teams from Ridgefield (non-scoring this time) and Three Rivers Christian (not in our league). Each of the other two teams produced 1 or 2 runners in the top 6 of the race, but none in front of our Senior star Thomas Normandeau as he ran just hard enough (16:43) to hold off Dustin Nading from RA Long. At first glance, having just on in the top six looked a bit alarming for the panther boys, but then the most intimidating pack ever from Washougal claimed six of the next seven places. Even though they were holding back in anticipation of Saturday's big race at the George Fox Classic, it still produced 2 PR's: Collin's 18:44 was an 8 second PR while Junior Jacob Bowen powered to a 29 second PR!!! The race also produced a PR from Sophomore Isaac Harvey as he continued to improve to 22:06.
The final tally against the Jacks (the second best team out there and the only one that scoring was required) chalked up a 15 point victory (23-38) to start the Panther boys' winning streak again. Today's impressive sub-maximum effort shows that we are truly ready to bust out a great performance on Saturday!
For the girls, we knew we had our work cut out for us against the Jills of RA Long. Typical of the opposition, they posted five runners up from for the first Kilometer or so. Freshman Courtney Owens and Sophomore Meredith Collins moved up to break up their pack by the half-way point, while Senior Hannah Wright and Junior Karina Miller started making an impact as well. With a 5th place finish from Meredith, officially she was our top runner for the first time in her career, but most observers at the finish were confident that Courtney edged her at the line as there was some confusion about which cones were the finish line. Both ran PR's with times in the low 21:30's. Hannah was not too far behind as she posted a 6 second PR. As a team, our girls had a decent day. We thought that this would have been good enough to win the meet but the race was stolen by RA Long as their 4th and 5th girls ran incredible races - just enough to edge the Panthers by 3 points and snap our 9 meet winning streak.
The girls took a commanding lead against the boys in the PR war of the sexes for the week. They included Seniors Gabby Harvey and Sydney Hickey in 27:22 and 23:21, Freshman Lydia Lyall running a solid 24:35 and Junior Emma Boyle running her best at 28:22. But the best PR of the day came from Junior Grace Collins whose 24:49 was nearly a minute PR! It was definitely worth the detour to include her in the race today. I am sure the guys will make a good race out of this competition on Saturday.
Although one winning streak ended, another one begun. The Panther XC program is full of optimism in what its future holds!
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Boys |
|
Mile 1 |
Mile 2 |
5000 M |
|
|
Thomas |
1st |
|
|
16:43 |
|
|
Aiden |
7th |
|
|
18:32 |
|
|
Nicolas |
8th |
|
|
18:33 |
|
|
Bailey |
9th |
|
|
18:34 |
|
|
Anthony |
10th |
|
|
18:43 |
|
|
Collin |
11th |
|
|
18:44 |
P.R. |
|
Jacob B |
13th |
|
|
19:01 |
P.R. |
|
Blake |
24th |
|
|
21:15 |
|
|
Isaac |
29th |
|
|
22:06 |
P.R. |
|
Aaron |
34th |
|
|
22:13 |
|
|
Jacob S |
36th |
|
|
23:11 |
|
|
|
of 45 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Girls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Meredith |
5th |
|
|
21:33 |
P.R. |
|
Courtney |
6th |
|
|
21:34 |
P.R. |
|
Hannah |
7th |
|
|
21:46 |
|
|
Karina |
10th |
|
|
22:06 |
|
|
Megan |
13th |
|
|
23:02 |
|
|
Sydney |
14th |
|
|
23:21 |
P.R. |
|
Brooke |
17th |
|
|
24:00 |
|
|
Lydia |
19th |
|
|
24:35 |
P.R. |
|
Grace |
22nd |
|
|
24:49 |
P.R. |
|
Gabby |
28th |
|
|
27:22 |
P.R. |
|
Emma |
32nd |
|
|
28:22 |
P.R. |
|
Bekah |
34th |
|
|
31:02 |
|
|
Maxine |
35th |
|
|
31:36 |
|
|
|
of 35 |
|
|
|
|