The "Run-Down": Ridgefield @ Abrams Park
It is time to head up to Abrams Park and visit our biggest rivals in the league, at least for the boys. We have had some exciting races there in the past few years with some memorable moments. Only two races were scheduled for today – and then the Second Annual Ridgefield/Washougal Ice Cream Feed (where we bring an appetite and the toppings).
After graduating many fine runners on their boys team from 2018, Ridgefield stumbled across two big surprises this season allowing them to still field a high-quality team: one transfer from Ellensburg (one of the finest XC programs in the state) and one first year senior that is heading towards first team all-league status. Considering those two big pluses for the Spudders, and with Senior Jackson Keyser not near full strength and Junior Jonathan Wells out of commission for one more week, the opposition was just more than we could handle. Since it was another “Black” course, the times were far from fast. In fact, since it was a pretty slow “Black” course, no Panther managed a P.R. today. Freshman Trey Keyser led the way for the Panthers as he managed to edge out the transfer kid for 3rd place, while Senior Hayden Stinchfield (5th) just missed him by a step and a half. Arguably the best panther performance of the day came from Junior Ted West, as he picked up the slack generated from sick/injured runners and was our scoring 5th runner! Unfortunately for the Panthers, the Spudder performance was enough to end our League Dual Meet winning streak at 23 (they were the last team to beat us, and it was also on this course four years ago).
The Panther Girls decided to return the favor and extend their winning streak to eight. Freshman Sydnee Boothby and Sophomore Savea Mansfield ran well ahead of the top Spudder girl. Complementing the top two runners were Junior Meryl Keeler (4th), senior Clara Best (7th) and Freshman Daya Sathyaraj (6th), to help the Panthers dominate the race with a 15 point victory. As for the rest of the season? Expect a bit more from the Spudder girls as they were missing a few significant bodies on this day.
As usual, there were plenty of smiles at the post-race Ice Cream Feed with 60+ teenage runners getting well-deserved carb replacement.
We have had a long streak of “Black” courses, and we have one more to go before we venture to the “Orange” area of the color spectrum – we have moved our home meet to Round Lake for next week’s confrontation with Mark Morris and Columbia River.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Line scores:
|
Boys |
5000 M |
|
|
Trey |
3rd |
18:46.3 |
|
Hayden S. |
5th |
18:47.3 |
|
Jackson |
10th |
19:41.2 |
|
Caden |
11th |
19:52.3 |
|
Ted |
14th |
19:59.6 |
|
Sam |
16th |
20:04.9 |
|
Jacob |
17th |
20:14.8 |
|
Sage |
19th |
21:21.7 |
|
Blake M. |
20th |
21:29.3 |
|
Nolan |
21st |
21:32.4 |
|
John |
23rd |
21:35.6 |
|
Derek |
25th |
21:46.3 |
|
Fischer |
38th |
24:21.3 |
|
Hayden B. |
40th |
24:43.9 |
|
Blake S. |
41st |
24:45.9 |
|
|
of 44 |
|
|
|
||
|
Girls |
5000 M |
|
|
Sydnee |
1st |
21:14.6 |
|
Savea |
2nd |
22:18.2 |
|
Meryl |
4th |
23:33.0 |
|
Daya |
6th |
24:44.9 |
|
Clara |
7th |
24:47.5 |
|
Violet |
13th |
27:00.5 |
|
Kaylee |
14th |
27:10.0 |
|
Ava |
20th |
33:39.1 |
|
|
of 21 |