The "Run-Down": Nike Portland @ Portland Meadows
It was a great day for Panther XC at Portland Meadows for the Nike Meet. It did rain on our parade (literally) for only about 30 minutes, but we enjoyed much celebration from extensive P.R.’s and many medal earnings.
Our MS girls continued their winning ways as they were the first “school”, as opposed to club teams, in the scoring. A little mix-up on the race numbers temporarily put seventh grader Breahna Stager in 13th place with a school record time of 11:34.4, but when the problem got fixed, the whole world now knows that it was really eighth grader Abigail Wall. Seventh graders Sydnee Boothby and Sparky Warta earned medals (top 50) by placing 29th and 40th. Eighth grader Paige Maas and seventh grader Chloe Johnson placed 61st and 66th to ensure that we placed one higher than our nemesis Liberty, just down the road in Camas. Those top five girls all have spots on our all-time top 10 list for 3K. Major improvements were achieved by eight graders Mary and Elizabeth Lendvoyi and Breahna Stager; we are still not sure what Breahna’s time and place were due to the race number mix-up, but we know it was fabulous.
We had two MS Boys also make the top ten list: eighth grader Gavin Keyser (#4) at 10:56 and seventh grader Blake Mattern (#8) at 11:11.7. They also were the two Panthers that medaled in that race. After subtracting out the club teams, the school team scores ranked us in 8th of 20. Boys that had significant improvement days included seventh graders Ezekiel Cerling-Austin, Tristan Froeber, Adan Magana and eighth grader Carson Chase.
The next race of the day for the Panthers was the HS girls in the D2 race, and all Panther eyes were on junior Amelia Pullen. In anticipation of a potential school record since we were on an orange course with plenty of competition, Amelia won the hearts of many Panther fans, and the other on-lookers from our league. She moved into second place during the second mile, and had to run alone from there on out. She still crushed the school record by 38 seconds. Her performance of 18:46.7 is not only the fastest 5K time for a Panther girl, but is also obviously better than Christy Burnette’s best recorded 3 mile time of 18:24 from 1986.
For the rest of the Panther Girls; they had a better than average day. Freshman Meryl Keeler stepped into the lime light as she raced to a time of 21:21.8 to become the #8 all-time Panther. She has the 2nd fastest freshman time in the District and the 6th fastest freshman time in 2A state! Very impressive as she was just the 3rd fastest eighth grader on her team last year. Senior Alexis Maniscalco established a new P.R., but probably a bit shy of her level of performance on the black course of Woodland three days earlier. Junior Brooklyn Bausch, sophomore Morgan Stinchfield and senior Bekah Shilling all ran seasons bests to give the Panthers a solid finish in the middle of the pack, mixing it up with many schools much larger than us. The only other Panther girl to race throughout the day was sophomore Denise Lara. Her mark of 15:46.4 over 3000 meters was almost 5 minutes faster than her time at Ultimook! She is truly enjoying the process of becoming a competitive runner.
Our Panther boys team accepted the mission of moving up to the D1 level as we get better and better each year. That meant we actually got to race against McFarland of Disney movie fame (that is in the movie the MS kids watched the night before). With 30 total very fine teams toeing the line, our boys ran well and squeezed into the upper half (14th). Junior Gabriel Dinnel ran with the lead pack comfortably through 2K, then faltered a bit and slipped to 8th place, but still ran over a 10 second P.R. in 16:13.1. Classmate Troy Prince-Butterfield continued his streak of sneaking into the awards placing (top 50 for medals), but this time he had to rely on his finishing kick to earn it, placing 49th. His P.R. was more sizable, just over 20 seconds. Even bigger was from another junior; Ian Palmer’s 30 second P.R. came from clocking in at 17:27.5. The largest P.R. at the Varsity level came from freshman Jonathan Wells. His improvement was by 1:12 over our race at RA Long 2 plus weeks earlier, but based on his performance on Wednesday on the slower black course, we knew he would be well under 18 minutes. His 17:16.1 ranks him as the third fastest freshman in 2A State, and would also make the All-time top Panther list if we stretched it to 11 instead of 10. Sophomore Jackson Keyser’s time of 17:38.9 was the second fast of his life, and also established a new Panther record for the fasted 5th runner in a race. Junior Koy Chaston continues to regain his form as he noticeably improves each week. Senior Tanner Lees twisted the Nike slogan on their van at the race: “Finish on Empty” is exactly what Tanner was destined to do since he decided to “Start on Empty” by not eating the 20 hours prior to race time. This mistake cost him a big P.R. as well as he missed his lifetime best by about 10 seconds despite his major nutritional faux pas.
Our Future Varsity boys ran in scattered races with highlights as follows:
Senior Quinn Austin crushed the 3000 Meter course running over three minutes faster than Ultimook.
Freshmen Ted West (40 seconds), Ethan Mills (55 seconds) and Maddox Edwards took advantage of the orange course factor (as we have been running black course lately) to post significant PR.’s in the freshman race.
Sophomores Caden Lowman and Derek Lawton follow suit with 30 and 46 seconds improvements, respectively.
In the final race of the day, Junior Warren Henderson continues his streak of dramatic events at Portland Meadows with a minute plus three seconds season’s best and classmate Andrew McElhaney said “I can top that” by making his a full minute P.R.! Both had an easy time earning medals by placing 19th and 26th respectively.
Our next meet is our only home meet against Mark Morris and Columbia River on October 4th at Cottonwood Beach.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Varsity Boys (D1) |
|
5000 M |
|
|
Gabriel |
8th |
16:13.1 |
P.R. |
|
Troy |
49th |
16:48.1 |
P.R. |
|
Jonathan |
93rd |
17:16.1 |
P.R. |
|
Ian |
106th |
17:27.5 |
P.R. |
|
Jackson |
135th |
17:38.9 |
|
|
Tanner |
149th |
17:50.9 |
|
|
Koy |
177th |
18:09.9 |
|
|
|
of 206 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Future Varsity |
|
|
|
|
Ethan (Frosh) |
81st |
19:45.5 |
P.R. |
|
Ted (Frosh) |
159th |
21:03.7 |
P.R. |
|
Sage (Frosh) |
182nd |
21:23.0 |
P.R. |
|
Maddox (Frosh) |
244th |
22:27.7 |
P.R. |
|
Caden (Soph) |
28th |
18:33.7 |
P.R. |
|
Derek (Soph) |
118th |
20:35.0 |
P.R. |
|
Scott (Soph) |
228th |
22:25.0 |
|
|
Warren (Jr/Sr) |
19th |
18:23.0 |
|
|
Andrew (Jr/Sr) |
26th |
18:30.2 |
P.R. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Novice |
3000 M |
|
|
|
Quinn |
128th |
14:03.8 |
|
|
Brett |
168th |
14:59.2 |
|
|
|
of 242 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Varsity Girls (D2) |
|
5000 M |
|
|
Amelia |
2nd |
18:46.7 |
Sch. Rec. |
|
Meryl |
62nd |
21:21.8 |
P.R. |
|
Brooklyn |
85th |
21:53.0 |
|
|
Morgan |
113th |
22:14.9 |
|
|
Bekah |
131st |
22:43.5 |
|
|
Alexis |
134th |
22:48.3 |
P.R. |
|
Kaylee |
163rd |
24:22.5 |
|
|
|
of 184 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Novice |
3000 M |
|
|
|
Denise |
120th |
15:46.4 |
|
|
|
of 271 |
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