The "Run-Down": @ RA Long
RA Long was the host of our final league dual meet of the year at Lake Sacajawea. Our bus ride included a detour to Clack College to pick up "Running Start" students and our ankle/shin taping machine Coach Frost mummifying the legs of a half a dozen Panthers. The mood of the team was calm, cool an collective as we not only anticipated the competition against the Jacks and Jills, but also our boys against the girls in the "battle of the sexes" (comparing our male 5th runner/RA Long first runner to the same placements against the females from Washougal). The end results were landslide victories for both genders: boys 16-46; girls 17-38. The boys wrap up the season with a league record of 3 and 1, while the girls broke even at 2 and 2.
For the boys race, when the gun went off (after the gun miss-fired), the RA Long guys tried to make an early statement, establishing several runners in the top 5. The RA Long boys outnumbered the Panthers 16 to 12. The top Jack, Ethan Johnson, found a way to stay there at the mid-point of the race in third place behind the two top runners in the league Juniors Sean Eustis and Isaac Stinchfield. But the other Jacks had faded away by then.
Junior Geer McGee and senior Noah Collins found a way to reel in the RA Long top dog with about a mile to go, even though Ethan ran his finest race of the season. Geer and Noah finished 3 and 4 in 18:24 and 18:26. Freshman Nicolas Velardi pulled away from junior Darian Tierney (as he was running a PR of 19:07) the last 200 meters to capture 6th, 27 seconds behind the "leader of the Jacks." But the "Leaders of the Pack" were still Sean and Isaac finishing in 17:59 and 18:00, some 15 seconds slower than their pre-race tour of the course. Sophomore Aaron Dunn posted another PR (22:16) for the second week in a row. The key to our boys making it to state will be getting runners 3-5 under 18 by district.
For the girls, we lined up 14 panthers vs. 11 Jills. It was good to see senior team captain Kendall Utter joining the ranks back on the starting line, rather than the sideline. Like the Jacks, the Jills bolted to the lead the first few hundred meters, trying to put some concern in the minds of the Panthers. But by the midpoint of the race, the Panthers had at least evened up the score by moving into second through fourth place with the supporting cast of 2 more in the top 9 or 10. RA Long runner Jordyn Jansen appeared to have the lead under control as the leaders disappeared for the final mile. However, when they reappeared for the final 400 meters, the Lady Panthers locked up the top 3 spots. Senior Kayla Lockard cruised through the 5000 meter course in second with a new PR of 22:32, with classmate Kendall Utter right on her heels, two seconds back. This was a good start for Kendall to get back into the groove of things. Confident running by Junior Kalli Light produced another Panther PR as sophomore Hannah Wright pulled her through the course and across the finish line in 23:08 (the two finishing 5th and 6th). Kalli's 5 second PR gave the girls a 5 second win over the boys in comparing our fifth against RA Long's first runner. The girls were within just 22 seconds vs. the boys 27 seconds in the big Battle of the Sexes. Today the Panther Girls rocked! Another PR was established by sophomore Sydney Hickey and classmate Brooke Croeni proved her ankle is now strong enough to race near her best, anticipating a PR on the Concordia course next week. Other solid performances from the class of 2014 were from our 6th and 7th runners of the day from Kelsey Lagerquist and Megan Anderson.
One last noteworthy performance came from our lone freshman girl on the team: Karina Miller. She was the overall winner of the race! Another week, and another PR in 22:25. Her bus ride home was accentuated by her gleaming smile reaching from ear to ear, while sharing a large bag of potato chips with her female comrades. Congratulations Karina!
Our girls still need to keep improving to capture a state qualifying berth. So Concordia, here we come.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Boys |
|
Mile 1 |
Mile 2 |
5000 M |
|
|
Sean |
1st |
|
|
17:59 |
|
|
Isaac |
2nd |
|
|
18:00 |
|
|
Geer |
3rd |
|
|
18:24 |
|
|
Noah |
4th |
|
|
18:26 |
|
|
Nicolas |
6th |
|
|
19:01 |
|
|
Darian |
7th |
|
|
19:07 |
PR |
|
Rusty |
9th |
|
|
19:44 |
|
|
Nathan |
13th |
|
|
20:33 |
|
|
Jacob B |
17th |
|
|
21:38 |
|
|
Aaron |
20th |
|
|
21:16 |
PR |
|
Jacob S |
23rd |
|
|
23:05 |
|
|
Dakota |
24th |
|
|
23:36 |
|
|
|
of 27 |
|
|
|
|
|
Girls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Karina |
1st |
|
|
22:25 |
PR |
|
Kayla |
2nd |
|
|
22:32 |
PR |
|
Kendall |
7th |
|
|
22:34 |
|
|
Hannah |
5th |
|
|
23:07 |
|
|
Kalli |
6th |
|
|
23:08 |
PR |
|
Kelsey |
11th |
|
|
25:27 |
|
|
Megan |
12th |
|
|
25:29 |
|
|
Brooke |
13th |
|
|
25:39 |
|
|
Sydney H |
15nd |
|
|
26:17 |
PR |
|
Sydney N |
16th |
|
|
26:23 |
|
|
Katie |
18th |
|
|
26:55 |
|
|
Kaitlyn |
20th |
|
|
26:55 |
|
|
Kari |
21th |
|
|
27:12 |
|
|
Serene |
22nd |
|
|
27:14 |
|
|
|
of 25 |
|
|
|
|