The "Run-Down": Nike Pre-Nationals @ Portland Meadows

Today, we are off to the races. Portland Meadows is the site, but the thoroughbreds of the day run on just two legs, as thousands of runners from over a hundred schools converged at the horse race track to tackle the Woop-Dee-Doos and bales of hay at the Nike Pre-National meet.

The early bus transported the Middle School kids to start the day. The boys figured on capturing at least 4 individual medals and possibly prove they were the best "school" team there. This race attracts several club teams of which Bowerman Track Club is a dominating force with runners (many of them with Nike connections) from all over the Portland area. It was a beautiful race day, especially contrasting with last year's wind storm.

Eighth grader Gabriel Dinnel held third or fourth position most of the race, but slipped to 6th the last half mile of the 3000M race. Not far behind was classmate Troy Prince-Butterfield squeezing into the top ten thanks to his great finishing speed. Their fellow class of 2019 teammate Koy Chaston waltz across the finish in 15th place. Our start seventh grader Andres Magana was just 12 seconds behind and placed 23rd. All of those received medals as expected. But beyond our expectations was eight grader's Ian Palmer's performance in 34th place and another 8th grader Andrew McElhaney sneaking into the top 50 for medals. The Panthers were extremely impressive considering there were 221 in the race. This was not enough to go nose to nose with the Bowerman club, but was good enough for 2nd and our 50 points was less than half of the third place team! Other Panthers that posted fine times for themselves were Eighth Grader Warren Henderson and Seventh Graders Hayden Stinchfield and Dillion Tuite.

For the girls, Bowerman was even more dominating in the win. For the Panthers, they easily placed in the upper half of the team scores, which were more competitive considering many Vancouver schools have only girls XC and not boys. Eighth graders Allison Warta (19th) and Amelia Pullen (35th) ran standard quality races to earn the expected medals to grace around their necks. Other eighth graders Olivia Ringo, Annabelle Palmer and seventh grader Morgan Stinchfield ran well and were the other three scores that helped the Panther girls to 7th place with 17 teams and 254 runners.

For the High Schoolers, the Varsity squads initiated the long series of races. Sophomore Courtney Owens had the assignment of monopolizing certain places throughout the race and ignoring the pace in the Division 3 race. She settled into 4th place early on as she put on her game face and charged over the Woop-Dee-Doos in championship fashion. The last 200 meters brought on challenges from nemesis Bailey Birch and a Medical Lake gal, each passing her, but it only ignited Courtney into her hyper-speed kicking mode, edging them out for 4th place. Her effort brought her a new school record and the fastest time in the District (for a few hours). Classmate Hannah Lintala placed well enough (24th) to also earn a medal, while Senior Karina Miller enjoyed a 50 second seasons best (22:40) to help the team split the field of 24 other teams in half. Junior Meredith Collins managed a 30 plus second improvement over last week and senior Abby Lees demonstrated that she honestly earned a varsity spot and improved another 26 seconds. The gals had just as much fun posing for photos at the Nike display as they did while traversing the course.

Sophomore Aiden Pullen aggressively attacked the first mile and discovered it was too fast about 2000 meters into the boys race. His 17:25 was still good enough for a medal in the more competitive Division 2 race. Senior Nicolas Velardi flirted with breaking 18 minutes with a physical effort not energized by emotion (evidently saving for the future league meets). Junior Bailey Duncan had a "ho hum" race, while classmate Luke Belzer eclipsed one of his season goals by a mere 0.1 of a second, breaking 18:30 at this meet. In his first Varsity Only race, Freshman Jamison Wright decided it was time to break 20 minutes! As we see the talent rising but with inconsistency on the boys squad, we anticipate getting synchronized and putting on a dynamite show the rest of the season.

For our Future Varsity racers, they ran in class races in which Freshmen Tanner Lees (narrowly missed breaking 20 minutes) and Jonathan Snapp ran quality races and Sophomore Nicholas Wolfe raced to a fine 12 second PR. On the girl's side, two Panthers tried the 3000 Meter distance; Freshman Amber Habkirk blazed ahead of a dozen and a half runners and Senior Genevieve Ashley rushed through the finish chute and pranced off like a gazelle to another engagement.

Our next week will be a solid workout week, with one league meet on Monday at Hudson's Bay as we approach the half way mark of the season.

Coach Terry L. Howard

Here are the line scores:

Boys		5000 M
Aiden	36^th	17:25.7
Nicolas	70^th	18:01.9
Bailey	91^st	18:15.0
Luke	105^th	18:29.9
Collin	123^rd	19:21.1
Jamison	136^th	19:42.6	P.R.
Jesse	150^th	21:57.8
	Of 151

Tanner	53^rd	20:00.5	Freshman
Jonathan	175^th	22:48.0	Freshman
Bryson	193^rd	23:21.6	Freshman
Evan	139^th	22:04.5	Sophomore
Wolfe – P.R.	111^th	21:17.4	Sophomore
Taylor	169^th	22:28.6	Junior

Girls
Courtney	4^th	20:16.0	P.R. S.R.
Hannah	24^th	21:30.3	P.R.
Karina	66^th	22:40.1
Meredith	129^th	24:16.2
Abby	166^th	26:45.0	P.R.
Mackenzie	169^th	27:10.0	P.R.
	Of 178

Genevieve	212^th	17:29.5	3000 M
Jeannine	268^th	19:29.2	3000 M
	of 287