The "Run-Down": District Championships
And now for something completely (well, at least somewhat) different for our District Meet. It was the same location, same course, but a different day of the week coupled with completely different weather than we had experienced all season long. The meet was moved to Thursday this year, and probably for years to come. That meant not all of the parents that wanted to attend could attend. At least those that could not attend did not get wet and cold as we got a good soaking in much cooler temperatures than we had in previous meets.
We were spectators for the first race of the day, but our girls followed the 1A race for girls. In her previous two races here, senior Amelia Pullen went off course eight times in 2016 and just three times last year. In her never-ending quest to improve each race, she victoriously reduced that statistic down to one this year! She also took the lead much quicker than she usually does, as her confidence in being one of the premier runners in the state has been increasing. Her margin of victory was well over a minute, but the time was shy of expectations as she only broke her course record by 6 seconds. This was a foreshadowing that all the races of the day would rarely produce the big P.R.’s we were anticipating. Freshman Savea Mansfield pulled away from the fourth place girl from Tumwater the last portion of the race to comfortably capture third and secure First Team All-League honors. Sophomore Meryl Keeler (16th) threw down back to back solid races to ensure being named to the Second Team All-League list. Our scorers included seniors Brooklyn Bausch (23rd) and Annabelle Palmer (28th). Freshman Paige Maas narrowly missed her P.R. and Clara Best, not far behind, “bested” hers by a second in their first district meet for both of them. The girls placed second, a considerable distance behind our primary target of Hockinson. We did not hit the bulls-eye this week, but we get to move on to Pasco to take another shot at them.
Never before had our team of Panther boys been the overwhelming pre-race favorites; no pressure was felt as we stood on the starting line, but rather we were focused on what each runner was ready to do. Hoping to “knock one out of the park” and score in the 30’s, we ran rather average as a team and scored 51. This was still more than enough to walk away with an easy win, where we still would have won by double digits without senior Gabriel Dinnel. He could not quite match his time from the previous year on this course, but did match his placing as District Runner-Up. Classmate Ian Palmer (7th) ran his best race of his life, having the smallest margin of comparison to our Nike times - only 10 seconds slower than his effort at Portland Meadows. Senior Troy Prince-Butterfield (13th) ran in a sizable pack of quality runners, but used his unparalleled 800 meter speed (at least in that group) to outkick all of them except for his teammate sophomore Jonathan Wells (12th). Junior Jackson Keyser (17th) was our fifth runner on this day as he sealed the deal on our first ever DISTRICT XC TITLE for boys. Senior Koy Chaston (28th) and Junior Caden Lowman (31st) helped prove our dominance as each of them placed in front of the fifth runner on all of the other teams.
The awards ceremony was short and sweet (and wet) as the trophy cups had to be emptied of the rain water captured throughout the morning before being handed to us to bring back to Pantherville.
For the third year in a row, we will travel to Pasco with 14 entries into the State Championship Meet. We leave Friday morning and race on Saturday, where we will tackle the newly modified course at Sun Willows Golf Course.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Boys |
|
Mile 1 |
5000 M |
|
|
Gabriel |
2nd |
5:02? |
16:06 |
|
|
Ian |
7th |
5:1? |
16:43 |
|
|
Jonathan |
12th |
5:1? |
17:01 |
|
|
Troy |
13th |
5:1? |
17:01 |
|
|
Jackson |
17th |
5:1? |
17:09 |
|
|
Koy |
28th |
5:1? |
17:27 |
|
|
Caden |
31st |
5:2? |
17:35 |
|
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of 91 |
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Girls |
|
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Amelia |
1st |
5:48 |
18:24 |
Course Record!!! |
|
Savea |
3rd |
6:20 |
20:25 |
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Meryl |
16th |
6:40 |
21:45 |
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Brooklyn |
23rd |
6:49 |
22:11 |
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Annabelle |
28th |
6:51 |
22:32 |
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Paige |
32nd |
6:56 |
22:56 |
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Clara |
36th |
6:49 |
23:10 |
P.R. |
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of 78 |
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