The "Run-Down": Ultimook XC Race
How do great teams start off their season? With a big Splash! And there is no better place to do so than in the Ultimook Mud Pit. In fact, the Panthers were the first team to make that "Splash" as seventh grader Elle Thomas was the leader in the Girls MS race as they hit the pit. Elle took us by surprise and appeared to be on her way to claiming "Runnerette of the Week" through most of the race, but she apparently misjudged the distance to the finish line and faded a bit to 6th place. She was still the first seventh grader across the finish line.
She also had some Panther partners in the front of the pack. Eighth graders Sydnee Boothby and Chloe Johnson with seventh grader Jamie Maas placing 3rd, 8th and 11th to give the Panthers a commanding victory over all the other schools, including the last year’s big rival Liberty. The most important runner in a meet this size is usually the fifth runner, and this time it was seventh grader Danica Stinchfield at 28th place; she improved 32 places from last year. It took some of the best runners in Vancouver combining their efforts under the Whisper Running club team to eclipse the Panthers for the overall win.
The MS boys (still missing a runner or two that will improve our scoring potential) were very competitive with a fourth place team finish, third of schools and only 15 points from the first school. Eighth Grader Trey Keyser beat only a few runners last year. This year only two of 151 could beat him. His third place time of 11:26 now ranks him 10th on our top ten list. His class mate and buddy Alex Holden that attended the Ultimook running camp with him 5 weeks earlier also stepped up his game and placed 29th. Veteran eighth grader Blake Mattern placed 18th and new comers Samuel Grice (14th) and Ben Houston (50th) were the other three in the scoring five as the Panther score in this race added up to the century mark on the nose.
Our Future Varsity boys made another big splash as Seniors Andrew McElhaney and Warren Henderson were the first two to jump in the mud. They faded to 4th and 6th respectively as several runners from other teams that should have been in the Varsity race managed to slip past them. Thanks to Sophomore Sam Lewis (8th), Senior Jack Olson (12th in his first race ever) and Freshman Gavin Keyser (14th), we ended up with just 39 points for the day - 98 points ahead of 2nd place (remember, low score wins). Now that is domination!
With our HS girls basically at half-mast (we were missing 4 of our top 8), we were uncertain if a trophy was in our destiny; we knew we had to run well, especially since we only put 6 girls on the varsity starting line. The Tillamook girls, even without their State Champion girl, showed why they were state champs last year, by scoring just 55 points. All of the other girls teams were within reach, but there were enough good ones to keep us out of the "Trophy 5" if things did not go our way. The next six teams had scores of 102, 104, 118, 121, 134 and 148. We ended up with the 118 and brought home the fourth place trophy.
The dual for the individual title was very interesting. The top two girls were both under the course record and both had the last name of Pullen. Sarah from Tillamook won the race and Amelia from Pantherville! Freshman Paige Maas and Sophomore Meryl Keeler worked together and finished 26th and 28th. Our remaining girls were Senior Annabelle Palmer (56th - having a much better time through the mud this year) along with classmates Olivia Dayley and Hallie Morris finishing right at the middle of the pack in 67th and 68th. There were 126 finishers this year.
Most coaches and spectators at the race would agree that the biggest splash of the day came from the Panther Varsity Boys. On the individual side of things, Senior Gabriel Dinnel brought "Oohs and Aahs" from the crowd as he charged through the mud pit full throttle with a commanding lead. His remaining two miles were insanely awesome as he smashed the course record by 26 seconds. His time of 16:20 is fabulous considering the difficulty of the course.
But the buzz after the race came from what the team did - 5 Panthers in the top 11 and 6 in the top 21! No other school had more than two in the top 21. With a finishing score of just 36 points, the Panthers nearly beat all the other teams combined!!! The other seniors finished 5th (Troy Prince-Butterfield), 10th (Koy Chaston) and 11th (Ian Palmer). Sophomore Jonathan Wells moved up through the race to break up our pack of seniors and captured 9th place as he was the second fastest sophomore of the day. Our juniors landed in 21st (Jackson Keyser) and 31st place (Caden Lowman). The next closest team had 94 more points than we did. Today we proved that the 2018 boys team is for real; there should be no doubt that we will move up in the WIAA 2A pre-season polls (currently ranked 5th) as the state of Washington realizes what we did today.
The HS squad concurrently competed in a dual league meet with R.A. Long: our boys stretch their winning streak to 15 with an 18-45 score and girls ran against an incomplete team thus giving them an automatic victory and a 5 meet win streak.
The taste of victory was sweet - even more so than the box of delicious Oregon grown peaches consumed after the race, complements of Coach Steven Edwards. BTW, his daughter Stephanie placed a delightful 21st in the Middle School race.
Next week, we do not race. Our next meet is in Trout Lake on September 12th for the first annual Gorge Cup race. This should be a very fun and scenic race to watch.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Varsity Boys |
|
5000 M |
|
|
Gabriel: Course Record |
1st |
16:20.5 |
P.R. Black |
|
Troy |
5th |
17:00.1 |
P.R. Black |
|
Jonathan |
9th |
17:23.6 |
P.R. Black |
|
Koy |
10th |
17:34.9 |
P.R. Black |
|
Ian |
11th |
17:37.3 |
P.R. Black |
|
Jackson |
21st |
18:16.6 |
P.R. Black |
|
Caden |
31st |
18:53.5 |
P.R. Black |
|
|
of 206 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Future Varsity |
|
|
|
|
Andrew |
4th |
19:32.7 |
|
|
Warren |
6th |
19:36.8 |
|
|
Sam |
8th |
20:06.3 |
P.R. Black |
|
Jack |
12th |
20:54.0 |
|
|
Gavin |
14th |
21:12.9 |
|
|
Donovan |
20th |
21:51.8 |
|
|
Hayden S |
30th |
22:08.2 |
|
|
Sage |
31st |
22:13.1 |
|
|
Derek |
37th |
22:47.9 |
|
|
Jacob |
49th |
23:27.7 |
|
|
Scott |
75th |
24:07.0 |
|
|
Brett |
90th |
24:52.5 |
P.R. Black |
|
Lucas |
93rd |
25:08.8 |
|
|
Fischer |
94th |
25:14.1 |
|
|
Blake |
104th |
25:42.1 |
|
|
Brig |
114th |
26:07.0 |
|
|
JJ |
118th |
26:46.9 |
|
|
|
of 152 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Varsity Girls |
|
5000 M |
|
|
Amelia |
2nd |
19:59.2 |
|
|
Paige |
26th |
23:37.2 |
|
|
Meryl |
28th |
23:38.9 |
|
|
Annabelle |
56nd |
25:270 |
|
|
Olivia |
67th |
26:17.9 |
|
|
Hallie |
68th |
26:22.5 |
|
|
|
of 126 |
|
|