The "Run-Down": RA Long @ Lake Sacagawea
Our trek up to Longview to face the Jack and Jills was fairly predictable. RA Long was able to throw one major surprise at us on the girl's side, but our solid depth was still no match for the prowling Panthers.
Still sidelining one slightly injured top five scorers, and missing one of our other nine, the girls still put 7 quality runners on the starting line. The scouting report said that RA Long would only put two girls in the mix with our scorers, but they found a third. RA Long's Ashlyn Opgrande abandoned the soccer quad to make her debut against the Panthers. Without her 2nd place finish, the Panthers would have had a landslide victory; with her, we still managed a 13 point spread. Three more steps from junior Paige Roberts to catch her would have added 2 more points to the margin of victory. The entire girls team ran on tired legs as they trained hard this week preparing for more challenging opponents, so no PR's on this day. However, sophomore Karina Miller managed to best her time from last year as she continues her winning streak at Lake Sacagawea. Junior Hannah Wright place fifth while freshman Meredith Collins pickup up five varsity points with 6th place. Juniors Brooke Croeni, (7th) Megan Anderson (9th) and Serene Dunn (12th) completed the ranks to give us a 22-35 victory. Paige had the most impressive last mile (6:26) as that was the "challenge" of the day for the Lady Panthers.
Running without Junior Thomas Normandeau and Freshman Collin Manning, the boys counted on Seniors Sean Eustis and Isaac Stinchfield to secure the 1-2 finish. But the team win came with efforts from Sophomore Nicolas Velardi, Freshmen Luke Belzer and Bailey Duncan capturing places 6 through 8 vs. RA Long (there were a few extra boys in the finish chute as Three Rivers Christian tossed a handful of athletes on the course as well). Our margin of victory over the Jacks was just 7, but Thomas would have easily sent that into double digits, probably into the teens.
The boy's race produced two PR from junior Aaron Dunn and freshman Taylor Leifsen. Aaron (21:04) shaved off 12 more seconds off of his Saxon Invite time while Taylor doubled that level of improvement - a 24 second drop to 21:24. Junior Anthony Velardi managed to tie his PR from the Saxon Invite, but should be considered a better effort considering the course.
The girls get to take a breather this weekend, but the boys head toward the races at Portland Meadows where the definitely will not be "horsing" around as they merge with over one hundred other teams for the Nike Pre-National meet.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Varsity Boys |
|
Mile 1 |
Mile 2 |
5000 M |
|
|
Sean |
1st |
|
|
17:51 |
|
|
Isaac |
2nd |
|
|
17:52 |
|
|
Nicolas |
8th |
|
|
19:21 |
|
|
Luke |
9th |
|
|
19:23 |
|
|
Bailey |
10th |
|
|
19:37 |
|
|
Anthony |
13th |
|
|
19:46 |
|
|
Blake |
15th |
|
|
20:23 |
|
|
Rusty |
16th |
|
|
20:33 |
|
|
Jacob B |
17th |
|
|
20:35 |
|
|
Darian |
18th |
|
|
20:42 |
|
|
Aaron |
19th |
|
|
21:04 |
P.R. |
|
Jacob S |
20th |
|
|
21:23 |
|
|
Taylor |
21st |
|
|
21:24 |
P.R. |
|
of 30 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Varsity Girls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Karina |
1st |
|
|
22:21 |
|
|
Paige |
3rd |
|
|
23:39 |
|
|
Hannah |
5th |
|
|
23:56 |
|
|
Meredith |
6th |
|
|
24:13 |
|
|
Brooke |
7th |
|
|
24:28 |
|
|
Megan |
9th |
|
|
24:59 |
|
|
Serene |
12th |
|
|
26:42 |
|
|
|
of 17 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|