The "Run-Down": District Meet (Evergreen State College)
Since the District Meet is varsity only, the bus was populated far short of capacity. The further north our bus drove, the more rain we found. The most important thing we were looking to find was how well we would run in the rain as we motored up to Evergreen State College. The eager Panthers chose to spend a good portion of our wait time to the 2A races on the bus. We capitalized on that time to revisit our John Colter story to ultimately prepare for the big race.
Our gals seemed relaxed and confident as they headed to the rain-soaked starting line, knowing that a solid race would send them to Pasco for the State Meet. As usual, the pack of Panthers started out in conservative mode the first half mile. Leading the way for WHS the first 2 miles or so was Junior Paige Roberts; you could see the look of determination on her face. Her personal goal: to qualify for state as an individual. She knew she would have to power past the two Mark Morris girls that were a few seconds ahead of her the week before. At the half-way point, Paige found herself in 16th place, needing just one more person to pass. Sophomore Karina Miller (sharing a similar goal) moved up and joined her just past the second mile. Not far behind, Junior Hannah Wright was sandwiched between our two stellar Freshmen: Meredith Collins and Yaneli Martinez as they moved up through the pack, and started to put some much needed distance ahead of Tumwater runner #3. Our pre-race projection targeted them as the team we should beat to solidify a trip to Pasco.
The last mile turned into a slightly scary scene as asthma started to overtake Paige. As she dropped out of the hunt for individual qualification, she powered toward the finish despite the need for air, all for the sake of the team. Her gutsy finish considering the undesirable circumstances still placed her 19th, just a half step behind her Mark Morris nemesis Julia Wygant - the leader of the two girls she knew she needed to beat. Shortly before, Karina crossed the finish line with a PR of 21:21.5, just one place out of individual qualification (thanks to the #6 Capital girl who did not run varsity the week before). The question now: is our #3-#5 going to be able to put enough distance in front of the Tumwater #3 to compensate for the dozen or so points their top two were better than us? Just two runners on teams between Yaneli and their #3 would seal the deal...
As usual, Hannah managed to catch a couple of gals the last mile (both from Hockinson, which put a smile on her last mile) and we got assists from 4 girls from other teams to give us a comfortable lead as we headed onto the track; WE MADE IT! Meredith (20th) established a new any course PR in 21:46.5, powering home to a Black PR (22nd/21:56.2) and Yaneli held on to 25th place - our goal for getting five scorers across the line as we scoped out the season the previous spring. Our friends from Mark Morris also snuck past Tumwater for the final team qualifying berth while the superior Capital team "ran away" with the title. The rain soaked victory dance the girls engaged in surely answered the question that we could run in the rain. Juniors Brooke Croeni and Megan Anderson impressively finished in the top 40. Brooke ran a Black PR (23:25.2) and Megan virtually tied hers of 24:05. What the girls accomplished as a team was rare. Without any individual qualifiers, the solid pack of Panthers qualified as a team!
Now it was the boy's turn to see what they could do. We were a slight underdog to qualify, but knowing we could run with and maybe chase down the Evergreen Conference champs WF West. We felt that beating them should give us a great shot at qualifying for State. The last race of the day was naturally the muddiest. Five previous races in the rain made for some pretty soggy spots on the course. Just under five minutes after the gun went off, Senior Isaac Stinchfield was feeling good the first mile and nipping at the heels of the odds on favorite Poli Baltazar of Aberdeen. However, weakened a bit by slight sickness, Isaac faded back to, and just behind fellow classmate Sean Eustis. The Panther stars settled into second and third. Poli refused to slow down as he was en route of smashing Dylan Croeni's course record. At the end, Sean and Isaac had more than enough to fend off a potentially deadly kick from WF West's Dallas Snyder, which was a critical match up we strongly expected to claim the early upper hand with.
First year standout Junior Thomas Normandeau came in as a strong candidate to also be a top 15, state qualifier. Thomas' effort was far from disappointing. Moving into the top 15 going into the last mile, he had his sights set on two WF West dudes on the last lap. Moving all the way up to 10th for the finish, he boasted afterwards that he cruised past both of them on the hill. His time of 16:48.5was an impressive "any course" PR by 2 tenths of a second, and a whopping 37 second Black PR. The Panthers proudly put 3 runners in the top ten; Aberdeen was the only other team with multiple top ten finishers with just two.
In terms of matching strides with our nemeses from the north (WF West), we dominated them through the first three runners by 17 points. Now could sophomore Nicolas Velardi and Freshman Bailey Duncan hang close enough to their #4 and #5 to upset them? Nicolas posted an 18:11.3, his second fastest time ever, fastest ever on a Black Course. He out-performed the T-Money pre-race projections by 3 places, giving back only 3 of the points to WF West's #4. Bailey was just a few seconds behind their 5, 6 and 7 guys and thus stayed within 5 points, giving us the upper hand over WF West. But exceptional performances from Capital and Aberdeen bounced us and WF West back to very competitive fifth and sixth team placements. Freshman Collin Manning powered his way to a 21 second Black PR timed in 19:03.3, virtually duplicating Isaac's time on the course his freshman year.
As mentioned early on, the course had some sloppy sections of mud and water. Junior Anthony Velardi found that out first hand, or should I say "First Foot!" On the first lap, his right shoe decided to stay in one of those sloppy spots while his body kept moving. Mentally, he rehearsed the John Colter story which propelled him to a 22 second Black PR with a racing spike on his left foot and a muddy sock on his right. Keep in mind that there was about 100 meters of gravelly road and paved parking lot to negotiate the last mile of the race. His resilience was definitely inspiring to all.
Although we fell a bit short of our ultimate goal of sending 14 runners to Pasco, here are some of the accomplishments the Panthers deserve to be proud of. Panther boys were the only team with 3 in the top ten. We were the first to get two freshmen boys across the finish line, as well as first to get two freshmen girls across the finish line. Throughout all three levels of racing, we had 2 of the 4 top boy's times of the day. When combining team scores, we edged out Mark Morris by one point! These are some stats supporting how successful we were this season - now on to STATE!
Coach Terry L. Howard
line scores will come later: