The "Run-Down": District Championships @ Lewis River Golf Course
No wind! No rain (except for a few drops upon arrival)! Not much visibility when we left, thanks to the fog! But no excuses not to run the best race of the season as well.
The Lewis River Golf Course was a new venue for us and most of the rest of the teams from our district at the 2A Level. The 1A's conducted their championship race there the year before. A heavy later of mist covered the ground such that foot prints were easily distinguished and accommodated writing names on the hillside. Correction on that: it should be "name" not "names". Someone on the team helped make Sophomore Lydia Lyall feel like a celebrity before race time!
The name writing was apparently more than enough to propel Lydia to a new P.R., finally breaking into the 22's (which was a coach-voiced goal from last year). Her success epitomized the success for our whole Varsity girls team as they qualified for STATE safe and sound!!! Her 31st place finish landed her in our forth position on the team for the first time in her young career. Just three places behind was Junior Meredith Collins, still trying to expel the residual symptoms of the bug she picked up the week before throughout the race. She plans to be fully recovered for the Pasco competition.
Up near the front of the pack, Sophomore Courtney Owens decided to sit with the lead group of three to start with. Once again running stride for stride with Ridgefield's Bailey Birch, but at a more comfortable pace as they were joined by Tumwater's Lauren Ericks, a 5:02 miler. Half way through the race, they were joined by Tumwater girl #2, the Thunderbird runners helped pull Courtney along to 3rd place, the first in our league to cross the line, a major factor that contributed to the size of her smile during the awards. Classmate Hannah Lintala (17th) claimed a bit of redemption from the previous week's mediocre performance. Her sizeable 28 second P.R. (21:02, 17th place) matched what a Sophomore Panther boy did the year before. Senior Karina Miller (23rd) made sure she caught a pair of Black Hill girls as she vicariously ran from the Black Foots, and thus securing one more race in her amazing career. The girls (97 points) captured third place to join Tumwater (28) and Ridgefield (78) as our District representatives at the big race in Pasco next week! In one way, we were almost happy that we did not get second rather than third as the second place trophy (the one we did not get to take custody of 2 years ago) is still MIA.
For the boys, we figured there were 3 teams in the hunt for the last qualifying spot. Hockinson and Woodland beat us the week before, but we ran without junior Collin Manning, the fastest runner in our league that did not run nine days prior. However, we knew that even with Collin, we needed to have a bit better than the 50/50 day we had last week. Senior Nicolas Velardi decided to pace the Panthers early on, knowing it could be his last race. He more than managed in the end with a 6 second P.R. placing 21st in 17:27. Breaking away from his pace near the half-way point was Junior Bailey Duncan and Sophomore Aiden Pullen. Bailey came through as promised, bouncing back from the disappointing League Championships with a season's best of 17:02. We are beginning to think his favorite number is 11, which is the place he achieved last year in this meet, last week's meet and the one today! Aiden powered through a few sniffles from the bug he was still recovering from, posting the 2nd best time of his career, 17:08. His 13th place finish ensured he would take the trip to Pasco a week later. Junior Luke Belzer worked well with Collin the first two miles, then pulled away, breaking 18 minutes for the first time (by a mere second) and placing 33rd in the race. We were content with Collin's 18:14, his second fastest race ever. Freshman Jamison Wright showed a new level of intensity as he crossed the line in 18:45, a 10 second P.R. Classmate Tanner Lees fell a bit short of a P.R., but seems eager to pursue greatness in years to come.
With our primary target being Woodland, the team we figured we would need to be to get to Pasco, we measured up well with our expectations, nipping them by 3 points. But the boys from Hockinson found a way to surprise the rest of us and bested us by more than a dozen points. Knowing that, we figured we were a distance 4th. But at the awards ceremony, the pre-race favorites Tumwater had several runners suspiciously missing from the individual qualifier; we were shocked that they were within arm's reach (just 4 points) when it came to the final score. However, with Aiden and Bailey both qualifying as individuals, it marked the 7th year in a row that the Panthers have sent at least two boys to state!
Our Pasco trip next week will be the final race Karina Miller's exciting career of four amazing years, and for most all other Panthers a chance to not only run great this year but rehearse for even better in years to come.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Varsity Boys |
|
1 Mile |
2 Mile |
5000 M |
|
|
Bailey |
11th |
|
|
17:03 |
|
|
Aiden |
13th |
|
|
17:08 |
|
|
Nicolas V. |
21st |
|
|
17:27 |
P.R. |
|
Luke |
34th |
|
|
17:59 |
P.R. |
|
Collin |
38th |
|
|
18:14 |
|
|
Jamison |
55th |
|
|
18:45 |
P.R. |
|
Tanner |
66th |
|
|
19:06 |
|
|
of 87 |
|
|
|
||
|
Varsity Girls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Courtney |
3rd |
|
|
19:53 |
|
|
Hannah |
17th |
|
|
21:02 |
P.R. |
|
Karina |
23rd |
|
|
22:03 |
|
|
Lydia |
31st |
|
|
22:57 |
P.R. |
|
Meredith |
34th |
|
|
23:23 |
|
|
MacKenzie |
62nd |
|
|
26:28 |
|
|
Abby |
66th |
|
|
27:17 |
|
|
|
of 68 |
|
|
|
|