There is something special about the second race of the season for Jackson Keyser. Especially if the first race of the season does not meet his expectations, which has happened several times in Track and XC. Normally Jackson is quite cheery, but when he knows he should have ran a lot better, the look on his face says "I am not happy and things need to change." And change he did. At Ultimook, he was our distant sixth runner; his performance in workouts became more focused and intense. During Wednesday's race at Trout Lake, he moved up to runner #5, just 4 seconds from #3. Now that's more like it! Jackson's time of 17:29.4 was a P.R. on any color of course - no other Varsity Panthers were able to accomplish such a feat on the supposedly extra-long course on that day!
The heroes are not always at the front of the race in XC. Sometimes they are not in the best shape of their lives. Heroes are the ones that find themselves in a challenging situation and respond with a positive mind-set and maximum exertion. And that is how Annabelle Palmer responded at Trout Lake. This past year, Annabelle's early season performances have been far from her best. However, by mid-season she makes tremendous strides as a consistent scorer (top five) for the team. Wednesday she was our sixth runner. She was informed she could possibly be the deciding factor. And she was! The score through the five runners from Washougal and Columbia was 53-53, and the tie goes to the 6th runner. She made a huge impact on the race by beating Columbia's 6th runner by 3 places.