Collin Manning may be known from here on out as "Justin". Not in reference to Justin Gatlin - America's best sprinter this year who as seriously challenged Usain Bolt this year. Definitely not in reference to Justin Bieber. It would be due to him having a great performance "Just in" time! Halfway through our race against Mark Morris, we were a few points from winning, and Collin was 40 meters behind Mark Morris #4. Based on previous performances, Collin was not expected to beat him, as he was runner #9 the previous week. However, Collin decided to step it up, catch him and thus be one of the heroes of the day to solidify the one point victory over the Monarchs. Collin impressively moved up to runner #5 just in time as we prepare for the championship season.
For Sonata Jensen-Meyer it is more like 2.9 miles long! The prior week, Sonata was the only Panther in the Future Varsity girls race at GFC. She relished the support of all the other Panthers cheering just for her. It resulted in a solid PR and earning a T-Shirt as well. The smiles on her face that day was evident she was having a great time. We learned early on in XCSI that the smile is a powerful force, and her continued excitement propelled her to a fabulous race against Mark Morris, effectively improving over 2 minutes in less than two weeks. However, since the Mark Morris race was a short course, we anticipate Sonata to extend that super long smile a bit to 3.1 miles for her race to finish off the season at the All-League meet.