Five years ago, we started our middle school XC program. Six seventh graders turned out for our inaugural team. Trenton Lowe was one of them. Trenton was at best in the middle of the pack, but his attitude for and enjoyment of the sport has kept him plugged into the team as he is the epitome of the committed XC runner at Washougal High. This year, he got off to a late start and was not able to compete in our first two meets. Wednesday at Alderbrook park was his first race of the season. This course is by far the slowest course in the league. But that did not deter Trenton from "knocking one out of the park." He started off his season in style in that he ran an amazing 26 seconds faster than he ran on any course last year, and he appears to be ready for more!
Very few runners will ever break one course record in their lifetime. Amelia Pullen did so twice in one week. Wednesday we were on Hockinson's home course at Alderbrook Park, the "blackest" course in the league. Her time of 19:20 was a course record by nearly 4 minutes. She also beat the previous course record holder in the process by over 2 minutes. 72 hours later, we were in Boise, Idaho after driving over 400 miles the day before. This is a prestigious meet involving schools from 9 states. Amelia broke the Division II course record by seven seconds by posting a time of 18:39.3. Thanks to Amelia winning this high powered race by 30 seconds, tons of people in Boise and many other locations in the western part of the United State now know that Washougal exists.