The "Run-Down": Oregon City Invitational

On what may be our last rather warm day of the year, we jumped across the Columbia River and headed south on I-205 to Oregon City High School. This was our very first time attending this Invitational, intending to run fast! What I thought was going to be a “Neon Orange” course ended up to be more like “Rust;” it was definitely Orange rather than black, but it was not quite as bright as anticipated. However, we did have a pair of fabulous P.R.’s and a class record to boot. So look forward to many more huge P.R.’s in October when we are scheduled to set foot on some other bright Orange courses. For the next few weeks, we will flip back over to Black courses for the most part.

The first race of the day for WHS was the Novice/JV 3000 Meter course, where freshman Laura Wagner was our lone Panther, so everyone else got to cheer for her. Even though the course was easier than Ultimook, Laura’s improvement of a minute and a half was very impressive. Our other two Future Varsity girls toed the line with 56 other girls for the 5K version for non-varsity girls. Freshman Lauren Filipczak was in 11th place from the mile mark to about 2.9 miles. Then she went into attack mode and caught several girls to place “in the money” as the top 10 in each race earned T-shirts. Her time of 24:24.4 was good enough for 8th place, and was just 2 steps away from seventh. Lauren has improved greatly over the past few months as both her dedication and intensity have significantly increased. Classmate Ava Rana established her legal P.R. (last week’s race was cut short by all in the event) by placing 51st with a time of 31:52.2.

Our Future Varsity boys pulled out a respectable 6th place of the 25 schools, with three teams less than (or equal to) 35 points behind us… the next team for us to catch was 99 points away. Junior Sam Lewis (13th) went through the first mile in 19th place, moved up to 14th by 2 miles but couldn’t quite move up enough to capture a T-shirt. However, it was enough to capture a ticket to Port Angeles next week. Classmate Sage Morris clocked in at 20:18.1 for 47th. Freshman Nolan Johnson’s late push had Sage a little scared as they hit the track for the finish. Nolan (20:19.7) ran more than 2 minutes faster than at Ultimook – enough to land him in 49th place of the 171 runners. His effort made him a strong candidate for Runner of the Week. Senior Derek Lawton placed 107th, sophomores Fischer Lees and Blake Scott were 117th and 139th and senior Brett Lawton settled for 161st as he was nursing a toe injury.

Franklin High School of SE Portland came in as heavy favorites for the girls team title while their boys should have been classified as “Super Heavyweight” favorite. Their girls had 3 in the top 10, highlighted by a 1-2 finish in the low-to-mid 18 minute range. Freshman Sydnee Boothby, with just one high school race under her belt, implemented better tactics this week; rather than going out and taking the lead (and she probably couldn’t have as fast as they went out) started out in the back of the breakaway pack of eight, moved into 5th in the first half mile or so, and held on strong to the finish. Her time of 19:25.0 was less than a second from being #2 on our all-time top list for Panthers, and also set a freshman record. This is the third year in a row that the freshman record has been broken, which is a great sign that the team is moving to the next level. Sophomore Savea Mansfield was on P.R. pace through 1 mile, slowed a bit through two miles, yet finished solid to maintain 13th place, which is one place better than the week before. Junior Meryl Keeler moved up 6 slots from the previous week’s placing by running the most even splits of the day (6:57, 7:19, 6:55 pace) for the girls.

Senior Clara Best and freshman Daya Sathyaraj acted like they were in a 3 legged race for the first 3 miles, then the 400 meter runner (Clara) decided to blast to the finish upon hitting the track for the final time. Her final time was 24:09.9 while Daya clocked in just 4 steps behind at 24:11.2. Although Daya is over halfway to earning her letter based on points, she is also closing in on the auto-lettering standard of 23:30 on orange courses. Senior Kaylee Timmons finished her first “maximum effort” event since breaking her ankle last spring. She was definitely not happy with her time of 26:34.5, but we are sure she will start smiling big time when she starts shaving off 30 seconds a week from here on out. The girls team score was one point less than last week, good enough for 6th place again. Considering the level of competition edge upward, we felt this was a good sign that our girls are improving as expected.

The big picture for the Varsity Boys Race included a new course record and an incredibly dominating Franklin team, placing 4 runners in the top 6 – a team that would have easily man-handled our record-setting team from last year. Since we did graduate a majority of the varsity squad from 2018, it was time for some new comers to steal the spotlight. Enter stage right… freshman Trey Keyser! We expected a Keyser to be the first Panther to the finish in many races this year, but with older brother Jackson sidelined by a recent appendectomy, Trey earned that honor in just his second high school race. His time of 17:49.3 currently ranks him as the best freshman from the 20 plus or minus 2A teams in the state that have posted 5K times. In this particular race, he was staring at the shoulders of freshman #3 as he kicked towards the finish line. Now, enter stage left… senior Hayden Stinchfield! Talk about running a huge P.R.!!! 57 seconds! WOW! Hayden was just 2 places and 4 seconds behind Trey – very impressive considering he was 13th on the team last year at best. He ran the best splits for Panthers in the Varsity races: 5:41, 5:55, 5:40 pace. He was only out done by Nolan back in the Future Varsity race: 6:43, 6:42, 6:14 pace! BTW, that is incredible for this being only his second XC race.

Senior Caden Lowman (57th), freshman Blake Mattern (64th) and junior Ted West (78th) rounded out the scoring five for the Panthers. For Blake, that ranks him 3rd currently for 2A freshmen. Sophomore Jacob Streuli posted the largest P.R. of the day as anticipated… more than 76 seconds. And we know he ran on tired legs from Tuesday’s workout so there should be additional significant P.R.s to follow.

Pardon the pun (and the alliteration), but we are right on pace for our perfect Panther progression.

Our next race is at home as we host the Lumberjacks and Jills from RA Long.

Coach Terry L. Howard

Line scores:

Varsity Boys		5000 M
Trey	42^nd	17:49.3
Hayden S.	44^th	17:53.0	P.R.
Caden	57^th	18:34.4
Blake M.	64^th	18:46.3
Ted	78^th	19:24.0
Jacob	81^st	19:27.3	P.R.
	of 121

Future Varsity Boys
Sam	13^th	19:13.1
Sage	47^th	20:18.1
Nolan	49^th	20:19.7
Derek	107^th	22:02.0
Fischer	117^th	22:21.2
Blake S.	139^th	23:45.2
Brett	161^st	26:53.5
	of 171

Varsity Girls
Sydnee	5^th	19:24.5
Savea	13^th	20:27.2
Meryl	26^th	21:57.3
Clara	59^th	24:09.9
Daya	60^th	24:11.2
Kaylee	80^th	26:34.5
	of 87

Future Varsity Girls
Lauren	8^th	24:26.4
Ava	51^st	31:52.2
	of 58

Novice Girls		3000 M
Laura	36^th	18:08.0
	of 42