The "Run-Down": Hood River Valley ("Skip Sparks" Invite)

Another great day for the Panthers as we ventured out to Hood River for the "Skip" Sparks Invitational. We had 56 pairs of Panther feet toe the starting line for this long-standing event. With nine High School and nine Middle School teams of various sizes, the level of competition was just the right amount to bring out the best of the Washougal runners. With the increased numbers of athletes, it is impractical to mention every single performance, so here comes the highlights.

Our high school bus got to the race site just in time to see the middle school girls start the show. 7th Grader Olivia Dinnel continues her streak of placing 2nd (third straight week) and class mate Gabby Warta finally puts a time up on the scoreboard with a 6th place finish. 8th Grader Morgan Stinchfield's performance was much improved over the weekend's race (11th versus 23rd at Ultimook) but just missed the podium by one place. 7th Grader Meryl Keeler showed evidence that she is figuring out how to race as she was one of the few MS Panthers that ran faster on this course (25 seconds better). Her 22nd place finish was key for the Panthers securing the second place team finish.

The MS boys followed suit with very competitive team "runner-up" team standing. 7th Jonathan Wells continued his winning ways and 8th Grader Caden Lowman (7th place) proved that the mud pit fiasco from the weekend cost him a shot at top ten finish on Saturday. Others that had apparent improvements in their races were Eighth Graders Casey Rappe, Scott Lees and Derek Lawton along with seventh graders Jace Poulsen, Kolby Lowe and Ethan Mills.

Next up was the High School races. Our girls were missing one of the pre-race favorites in Junior Courtney Owens as she was resting some minor soreness, but that did not stop Hannah Swigert from rising to the occasion and exceeding coach's expectations. A third place finish and a PR by 0.5 seconds (20:45.93) was graciously received considering she had tired legs at the start, her training partner on the sidelines, a shoe come untied on the first loop, and the wrong bib number on. She may have been a bit embarrassed standing on the podium, but we were all super proud ho her. Other highlights coming from the Panther Girls at any HS level were our two Freshmen Brooklyn Bausch and Annabelle Palmer (18th and 23rd) and Abby Lees (22nd at the Future Varsity level).

The Varsity boys stepped up to the starting line next as a significant underdog as we tried to match up with the top two teams from Saturday's larger school division (we were the smaller school winners at that meet). The team scores were pretty much in line with the pre-race projections, but we truly felt we ran better as a team thanks to Junior Aiden Pullen (PR at 16:49 in 9th place) Senior Bailey Duncan (3rd best time ever in 12th place) and Freshmen Troy Prince-Butterfield (18:02 snatching 16th) and Koy Chaston (18:40 completing our scoring 5 in 21st place). Freshman Gabriel Dinnel was a little flat relative to last week's fabulous 3rd place finish, but still managed to set a new Freshman record (16:42) as we ran on a course that did not have serious "speed bumps" like those at Ultimook. The host team won thanks to a 1-2-3 finish the other fine team that bested the Panthers was Hermiston who managed to have all five of their scores surrounding Aiden, all within 11 seconds either behind or in front of him.

The Future Varsity boys faired a bit better than the other HS teams. Their 57 points was just 6 away from second place. Many of these boys performed in such a way to make them candidates for Runner of the Week! Freshman Ian Palmer was the first Panther across the line, narrowly missing the 20 minute barrier (by 0.04 seconds). Classmates Warren Henderson and Andrew McElhaney (7th and 8th) were award winners again with him. Two sophomores completed our scoring five: Michael Stevens and Preston Urell, placing 18th and 19th. Our other sophomore Bryan Lange improved significantly as he chopped off a full minute over his Ultimook time, which was better than average on our team.

The Hood River Valley coach noted on the improvement of our team and I think he is concerned that the Panthers might soon start sweeping their invite (as they have been doing recently). So let's make that our goal to do so next year!

Next week, we head north, to Woodland, to face beavers and Hawks (from Hockinson).

Coach Terry L. Howard

Here are the line scores:

Varsity Boys		1+ Mile	2++ Mile	5000 M
Gabriel	4^th	5:22	11:01	16:42.4
Aiden	9^th	5:22	11:01	16:51.7	P.R.
Bailey	12^th	5:25	11:12	17:06.4
Troy	16^th	5:47	12:00	18:02.3
Koy	21^st	5:48	12:15	18:40.7
Tanner	25^th	6:02	12:28	19:09.0
Jeffrey	29^th	6:04	12:48	19:37.1
	Of 50
Future Varsity Boys
Ian	5^th	6:27	13:07	20:00.1
Warren	7^th	6:30	13:16	20:12.6
Andrew	8^th	6:28	13:13	20:17.9
Michael	18^th	6:41	13:45	21:06.7
Preston	19^th	6:54	13:41	21:26.6
Trent	24^th	7:02	14:21	21:13.1
Benjamin	38^th	7:26	15:26	23:41.6
Bryan	42^nd	7:55	15:55	24:08.2
Ryan	48^th	8:09	16:05	27:36.8
	Of 50
Varsity Girls
Hannah	3^rd	6:42	13:44	20:46.0	P.R.
Brooklyn	18^th	7:28	15:29	23:11.1
Annabelle	23^rd	7:42	15:54	23:55.0
Meredith	29^th	8:20	17:09	25:42.5
Lydia	32^nd	8:20	??	26:12.8
	Of 32
Future Varsity Girls
Abby	22^nd	8:37	18:11	28:24.0
Jeannine Jones	29^th	9:44	20:20	30:59.1
Sonata	30^th	9:57	21:02	32:31.8
	Of 37
Note: P.R.'s not considered for those that have not run on an Orange Course