The "Run-Down": State Championships @ Sun Willows Golf Course (Pasco)
Our two hundred mile drive east of Washougal with two vans full of High School runners was more than just an escape from the class room setting on the first Friday in November. Our first rest stop allowed us to display we were All-State material when it came to van decorations. Van #1 was thoroughly entertained with the Selfies that Van #2 was sending via smart phone. All of the non-drivers in the vans came to put their best foot forward on Saturday at the starting line, or cheer like crazy from the sidelines.
A few hours prior to race time, most of the Panthers experienced an eerie breakfast as one of the other schools had a "Karina Miller Clone" that forced us to engage in many double-takes. Unfortunately, our Senior Team Captain Karina Miller missed out on seeing her. Regardless, she thoroughly prepared her comrades for our best team race of the season. The start of the girls race went as planned. Super sophomore Courtney Owens crested the opening hill in the top 15 as planned. She was holding onto 14th place through the half-way point, just seconds away from top ten placing. Even though she slipped back to 23rd (the highest place at state for a Panther Girl in over 20 years), her 19:41 was just 8 seconds from one of the coveted 16 medals handed out for individuals. Since 9 girls ahead of her will graduate, next year should bring even better results. Classmate Hannah Lintala proved she was our "Super Hero" posting the only Panther PR of the day (16 seconds) on the challenging "Orange Course." Her 20:46.5 eclipsed our Pre-2013 school record set on the same course 4 years earlier.
Our self-proclaimed "Super Model" (Sophomore Lydia Lyall) did not find an adequate feature on this golf course to leave her autograph like she did last week, but she did "leave it all on the course" with the 3rd fastest time of her life in 23:38.6. Our two female Panthers that had State Meet experience (2012) both ran impressive Season Bests! Karina captured 104th place (21:31.4) and Junior Meredith Collins was awarded 125th (22:31). Both were over 15 seconds faster than the short but sloppy league championship race. Fabulous races by both. Empowered by her Starbucks mocha from the morning road trip the day before, senior McKenzie Kitchen blazed through her first mile at 24:00 pace. She still wished the race would have been 4K or shorter, confident she would have held her ground against the two Ridgefield gals she had a lead on, however, she still captured a PR by 6 seconds (26:10.2). Sophomore Abby Lees enjoyed the trip around the golf course and the cheers from family and teammates along the way.
In regards to our total team effort, it was the best of the season. Stepping on the line, we knew we probably had to run near perfect to beat any team, but our solid effort brought us within 16 points of our friends from Ridgefield. If it was a dual meet scoring, the score would have been 27-28, just one point shy of making up the 11 points they bested us at the first dual meet of the season. We were full of smiles and sense of accomplishment all the way to dinner (where we waited for an eternity to get served) and back to Washougal.
For our two Panther boys that were individual qualifiers, a solid first mile at 5:18 was just a few seconds too quick to run the perfect pace race. However, both were still able to move up in the ranks throughout the race. Sophomore Aiden Pullen proved he was fully healthy and just missed his PR (which was on the short League Championship course) so we will call it his best effort ever. His 17:03.9 put him in 58th place, a few seconds ahead of several District 4 racers that were ahead of him last week. Junior Bailey Duncan nearly matched his time from last year (less than one second off), but moved up in the rankings 17 places to 85th, reversing the numbers in Aiden's place.
Our trip was fun, our performances were exciting and for the non-seniors, we are incredibly eager to head back next year and do some serious damage and attempt to bring home some hardware around our necks and in our hands.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Varsity Boys |
|
1 Mile |
2 Mile |
5000 M |
|
|
Aiden |
58th |
5:18 |
|
17:03.9 |
|
|
Bailey |
85th |
5:18 |
|
17:33.3 |
|
|
of 141 |
|
|
|
||
|
Varsity Girls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Courtney |
23rd |
6:01 |
|
19:40.7 |
|
|
Hannah |
72nd |
6:19 |
|
20:46.5 |
P.R. |
|
Karina |
104th |
|
|
21:31.4 |
|
|
Meredith |
125th |
6:59.73 |
|
22:31.0 |
|
|
Lydia |
132nd |
7:14 |
|
23:38.6 |
|
|
MacKenzie |
140th |
7:40 |
|
26:10.2 |
P.R. |
|
Abby |
141st |
8:08 |
|
27:52.2 |
|
|
|
of 141 |
|
|
|
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