The "Run-Down": Mark Morris (and Ridgefield) @ Home

Our first and only home meet of the year. After playing musical XC courses the past couple of years, we finally ran the same course in consecutive outings. The weather was perfect for a beautiful run on the beach - Cottonwood Beach at William Clark Park, of course. Joining us was the Monarchs of Mark Morris and the ubiquitous Spudders from Ridgefield as they were designated as our Siamese twin (they will travel with us to every league meet). Since we see them three times, only the first one is scored for our league record.

A few of our High Schoolers ran the extended warmup (from 1201 39th St down to Index St) while the other's drove or rode with the Middle Schooler's bus. The MS XC team got to watch the older kids race before they capitalized on the opportunity to be the first group to run the Cottonwood 3K course. The first group they got to watch was our boys.

We knew for weeks that this meet should be very close. Mark Morris had a multiple year winning streak at stake. We missed snapping last year by one point. As we struggled through health issues all week long, we found ourselves not in perfect health, but healthy enough to step to the starting line with reasonable expectations to still claim the big "W". As usual, the Monarchs bolted out to a large team advantage; by the midway point, runners settled into their places with the Panthers five points from the win. Several Panthers inched up on the target in front of them, but none could change the score.

The most critical target was sophomore Steven Wallis, who had been ailing the past week and was questionable to compete until race day. We had three Panthers hot on his heels, within 20 seconds of him (both Velardi brothers and Freshman Aiden Pullen). That was one scenario that would have turned the "L" into a "W". We know that Anthony had a high quality performance and moved up to runner #3, but the other two were short of their best on this given day. Senior Thomas Normandeau cruised down the beach in a comfortable 2nd place, which was expected. Sophomore Bailey Duncan battle back pains which caused him to settle for 5th place, some 15 seconds behind their top sophomore. We are quite sure that Bailey will redeem himself when the back issues get resolve. The final score today was Mark Morris 26 and the Panthers 31. On the brighter side of things, had we scored against Ridgefield, we would have posted a perfect score (15-50) since they were missing there top runner or two.

Other noteworthy performances beyond our top five included Sophomore Luke Belzer clocking in at 18:26 for his first race of the season and Freshman Gabe Groom, posting a 19:43; this Black Course time was 24 seconds faster than his Saxon time on an Orange course.

For the girls, there was no pressure at all as Mark Morris showed up with only two girls. That gave us a "15 to Incomplete" scoring. But the suspense was significant as a pack of 10 or so runners went through the first mile together. Ridgefield's Bailey Birch hung back with her teammate and the Panthers. After lap number two was wrapping up, Senior Megan Anderson surged into the lead to see if she could "run away" with the race. She admitted it was very exhilarating while it lasted, but several teammates and opponents caught her on the beach. The pack of Panthers placed 3-6 to dominate the team race.

Freshman Courtney Owens moved up to runner #1 as Senior Hannah was "Wright" behind her, "honking" like a good goose should. Junior Karina Miller and Sophomore Meredith Collins were the next two well ahead of the two Mark Morris girls. Megan wrapped up our scoring five, but the biggest smile of the day was earned by her so called "twin" and classmate Sydney Hickey as she cracked 24 minutes for the first time. Senior Bekah Luthi also gained the respect and praise from the coaching staff as she negotiated her first 5000 Meter course in style in under 30 minutes.

For the MS XC team, they had a blast. 8th Grader Kyle Cooper edged out 7th grader Gabriel Dinnel for the course record (11:09) since it was the first time run. 7th Grader Annabelle Palmer made a big statement by running over a minute PR from her race the Saturday before - WOW!

For many, the best memories of today will be from all those that ran first time races or first time PR's, and the flock of geese honking over our heads as we wrapped up with the team meeting; remember the honking was to encourage us through the rest of the season!

Next week we head up to Longview on Thursday to face the Jacks and Jills, and then on to the relocated George Fox College sponsored race in the Salem area on Saturday: both these courses are very "Orange" and should produce some huge PR's!

Coach Terry L. Howard

Here are the line scores:

Boys		Mile 1	Mile 2	5000 M
Thomas	2^nd	5:26	11:14	17:44
Bailey	5^th	5:36	11:40	18:37
Anthony	7^th	5:43	11:58	19:01
Aiden	8^th	5:53	11:53	19:04
Nicolas	9^th	5:43	11:53	19:09
Collin	10^th	5:50	12:11	19:17
Luke	11^th	5:50	12:17	19:26	PR - Black
Gabe	14^th	6:09	12:33	19:43
Jacob B	16^th	6:08	12:33	19:57
Jacob S	22^nd	6:14	13:57	22:09	PR - Black
Isaac	24^th	6:31	14:02	22:16	PR - Black
Blake	25^th	6:17	14:22	23:16
	of 29
Girls
Courtney	3^rd	7:10	14:44	22:43	PR - Black
Hannah	4^th	7:10	14:33	22:50
Karina	5^th	7:10	14:46	22:51
Meredith	6^th	7:11	14:47	23:10
Megan	9^th	7:10	14:25	23:30
Sydney	10^th	7:20	15:11	23:59	PR – Any!
Brooke	12^th	7:11	16:12	24:58
Lydia	13^th	7:36	16:07	25:27	PR - Black
Grace	17^th	7:59	16:32	26:00
Gabby	20^th	8:01	17:27	28:03
Bekah	22^nd	8:47	18:39	29:31
	of 22