The "Run-Down": RA Long/Ridgefield @ Ridgefield
Two years ago, the Panther Middle School XC team made its debut with just 12 runners at Ridgefield's home course, Abram's Park. Today we brought a bus load of MS athletes ready to race. Although a good portion of the team showed up to the start line with just a few minutes to spare, some of them had to settle for their training shoes rather than racing shoes. But that was not enough to rattle 7th grader Jonathan Wells. He took control of this race early on and did not look back to see if anyone wanted to stay close. The closest competitor was barely within 10 seconds on the 3000 Meter course. Other MS boys that responded to the challenge were 8th Grader Derek Lawton, 7th graders Eli Sassmannhausen and Ethan Mills, and 8th grader Nathan Nuss. They all finished in a tight pack, all within just 3 seconds. There were six teams present, as 58 boys cross the finish line by the end of the day.
The girls were led by 7th graders Olivia Dinnel and Gabby Warta as they finished 3rd and 5th. Others that made serious contributions were 8th grader Morgan Stinchfield and Meryl Keeler in 9th and 11th place.
Since we had been to this location two years earlier, the Spudders adjusted the length of their course; prior to 2014, the course was only 3.0 miles, but with the challenging features was classified as an Orange 5K course. Now it was legitimate length and with the challenge factor it has been reclassified as Black.
We anticipated that the Ridgefield Boys would give us the biggest challenge within the league for the year. With Ridgefield star Silas Griffith back to near full stride after a summer injury, we were willing to concede first place to him, the panthers set out to capture second, third and fourth using our triple threat, plus unleashed secret weapon freshman Troy Prince-Butterfield to break up their pack. The first half of the race was playing out like clockwork. We even had extra bonus hope in that Freshman Koy Chaston decided to run in position #4 for the Panthers for a while. Senior Bailey Duncan and Freshman Gabriel Dinnel held their position, a couple of Panthers slipped back a few places and Troy show signs of greatness as he beat their #3 and was closing on their #2. Unfortunately, the Panthers fell one point short of victory, thus snapping their 8 meet winning streak. OUCH! RA Long was also in attendance, but they were not much of a factor as they struggled to put just one runner to mix it up with and finish ahead of our #6 and #7. Freshmen Ian Palmer ran a Black Course PR and Ben Adams established an "any course PR" to add more Panther Highlights to the meet.
With Junior Courtney Owens still sidelined with an injury, first place was up for grabs with prime candidates being two Ridgefield girls, Lexi Rutherford and newcomer Sophie Miller, RA Long's Abby Weiler and our own Junior Hannah Swigert. The pre-race race plan was for Junior Hannah Swigert to follow the leader until the last 400 or so, but half way through the race Hannah's confidence builds and she took control of the competition and said "catch me if you can." Well, they could not. Hannah held a double digit lead (in seconds) over the last half of mile of the race for her first win over State Qualifier caliber runners.
Senior Meredith Collins also sat you due to illness, so the decimated Panther squad could not match the experience and depth of Ridgefield and RA Long. Our two freshmen were the next two across the line and followed by our exchange student Signe Zacho who managed to post a Black course PR by 46 seconds as she has proved to be a quick study.
The next stop for the Panthers will be the bright orange course at the George Fox Classic on Saturday. We can't wait!
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Boys |
|
5000 M |
|
|
Bailey |
2nd |
17:35 |
|
|
Gabriel |
3rd |
17:48 |
|
|
Troy |
5th |
18:06 |
P.R.-Black |
|
Aiden |
7th |
18:17 |
|
|
Koy |
12th |
18:59 |
P.R.-Black |
|
Tanner |
15th |
19:30 |
|
|
Ian |
16th |
19:30.9 |
P.R.-Black |
|
Collin |
20th |
19:51 |
|
|
Jeffrey |
25th |
20:09 |
|
|
Warren |
33rd |
21:13 |
|
|
Andrew |
36th |
21:43 |
|
|
Michael |
37th |
22:03 |
|
|
Benjamin |
44th |
23:09 |
P.R.-Any |
|
Trent |
45th |
23:18 |
|
|
|
of 68 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Girls |
|
|
|
|
Hannah |
1st |
21:16 |
P.R.-Black |
|
Brooklyn |
9th |
24:01 |
|
|
Annabelle |
11th |
24:07 |
P.R.-Black |
|
Signe |
16th |
25:42 |
P.R.-Black |
|
Lydia |
18th |
25:59 |
|
|
Abby |
29th |
29:53 |
|
|
Sonata |
30th |
30:06 |
P.R.-Black |
|
Jeannine |
34th |
31:41 |
|
|
|
of 38 |
|
|