The "Run-Down": Ultimook XC Race

 

Each overnight road trip provides additional challenges. This year's Ultimook pretty much took the cake. Here were some of them: a dozen or so athletes waiting for the last minute (some literally) to turn in permission slips, clearing home school athletes academically at 10:00 the morning we leave, no Bandanas as expected, heavy rain showers in the coast range on the trip down (they were scary, but we only had heavy drizzle to light rain at the site), one 8 man tent with the name of Pullen on it that went A.W.O.L. at the last minute, 3 of our new resistance bands breaking on the first day of usage, Coach Terry yelling "where is my pen" every 30 minutes, four "Fat Dog Pizza fiascos" (I hope that vegetarian pizza was worth the wait, Brooklyn), the power source for the laptop to show the video left back in Washougal, extra loud "entertainment" from the girl's tent past light out time (how in the world did Abby Lees sleep through that?), Coach Elle Wade's near miss of being soaked by tent water, and one size 10 1/2 shoe that wanted to play "hide & seek" in the Kilchis river with Aiden. However, we were please to find out the pet skunk that was on site during the race was not inclined to stink up the course.

 

Even though all those challenges tried to interfere with our plans to succeed, they failed. The most prominent success story was in the varsity boys race where Senior Team Captain Aiden Pullen's missing shoe took him so far out of contention that the coaching staff thought he dropped out of the race. That, along with Peanut Butter and Koy (nickname for Sophomore duo Troy Prince-Butterfield and Koy Chaston) being further back than expected. Lone varsity Junior Tanner Lees was also further back than expected. It looked worse than it was; since there were 25% more runners in the race than last year (206 vs. 162) and 35% more scoring teams, the Panthers were holding their own as expected. As overwhelming favorites prior to the race, we were hoping for a score of 50 or less. Our 86 was still nearly 50 points ahead of 2nd place, the host team of Tillamook.

 

The first factor that was "visibly positive" in the race was Sophomore Sensation Gabriel Dinnel moving from 5th to first in the middle of the race and pushing the pace with 800 meters to go to claim his first big victory in his High School career. The second was seeing Aiden crossing the finish line in 26th place (probably 20 places higher than expected) as he recovered nicely and passed dozens of runners once he had two shoes on again. It is a good thing when several events go wrong and you still wind up on top of the score board ahead of the other 30 complete teams in the race.

 

Other highlights from other races on the boys side include 8th Grader Jonathan Wells defending his title in the Middle School race while running a "high school" caliber last 800 meters, and class mate Ethan Mills joining him on the awards stand by placing 6th (17 places better than last year). In the Future Varsity race, Sophomore Warren "Hollywood" Henderson (not the 63 year old Pro Bowl NFL Star) was only out-paced by one "legitimate Varsity runner" to lead the team to 2nd place. Freshman Caden Lowman used his fabulous kick to grab third and Sophomore Ian Palmer was a solid 5th putting 3 Panthers on the podium.

 

For the middle school girls, the 8th graders (Olivia Dinnel, Gabby Warta, Milan Shirakawa and Meryl Keeler) did most of the heavy lifting to have the Panthers claim the second place team award. Olivia was 4th, Gabby 8th, Milan 15th and Meryl 24th, cut her place exactly in half from last year, which actually was the request of the coaching staff as a pre-race goal. Two 7th graders proved they can contribute to the success of the team: Isabelle Klopman and Sammy Mederos grabbed 23rd and 25th, making a "Meryl Sandwich" with their placements.

 

Our HS girls were ready to take the stage and show their new look. With the majority of the Varsity team making their High School XC debut, we were optimistically looking to earn one of the team awards to bring back to Washougal. Sophomore Amelia Pullen and Senior Team Captain Hannah Swigert earned individual honors with 4th and 9th place, proving that they are both contenders for League and District titles. Sophomore Annabelle Palmer improved 30 plus seconds over last year, despite have more difficulties than the probably any other panther in the mud pit. She recovered nicely and was our solid fourth runner. Our trio of freshmen ran solid races placing 62nd (Morgan Stinchfield), 73rd (Tess Jones) and 79th (Kaylee Timmons). Sophomore Brooklyn Bausch was the panther girl that was harshest on her own performance as she ran a "good" race in 20th place, but you could tell she was hoping for a "great" race. We can't wait to see how great a "great" race is for Brooklyn as she has sites on a whole new level of competition this year. Maybe we just need to get that Veggie Pizza to her on time next time. With no other team being within 20 plus points of our 111, we proved that we were the third best team out there and we received the place we deserved.

 

For the Future Varsity girls race, another new comer to the sport, Sophomore Olivia Daley, flapped her "Eddie the Eagle" wings (figuratively speaking) as she moved up through the race all the way to second place. The girl ahead of her was Scappoose's 4th best girl and probably should have run at the Varsity Level. But Olivia showed that she was definitely ready to move up from the 40 meter jump to the 70 meter jump (an "Eddie the Eagle" analogy).

 

Next up for the panthers is the Hood River Valley race, a week from next Wednesday. This race will have both the MS and HS teams. The HRV boys team should be a good match up for our boys, while HRV girls are about a year ahead of us as they have a deep, dominating team of girls to chase after.

 

Coach Terry L. Howard

 

Here are the line scores:

 

Varsity Boys

 

5000 M

 

 Gabriel

1st

17:10.4 

 P.R. Black

 Troy

15th 

18:57.4

 

 Koy

23rd

19:32.5

 

 Aiden

26th

19:39.0

 

 Tanner L

32nd

19:52.3

 

 Jeffrey

63rd

21:01.7

 

 Jackson

128th

22:42.5

 

 

 of 206

 

 

Future Varsity

 

 

 

 Warren

2nd 

20:41.6

 

 Caden

3rd

20:46.7 

 

 Ian

5th

20:48.2

 

 Trent

21st

22:46.7

 P.R. Black

 Derek

67th

24:57.8

 

 Scott

70th

25:02.2

 

 Hayden

93rd

26:13.7

 

 Brett

96th

26:18.5 

 

 Ryan

110th

27:01.3

 P.R. Black

 Spencer

136th

30:28.7

 

 

 of 157

 

 

Varsity Girls

 

 

 

 Amelia

4th

22:10.0

 

 Hannah

9th

23:23.5

 

 Brooklyn

20th

24:05.8

 

 Annabelle

55th

25:59.3

 

 Morgan

62nd

26:18.3 

 

 Tess

73rd

26:43.3

 

 Kaylee

 79th

26:53.2 

 

 

 of 153

 

 

Future Varsity

 

 

 Olivia

2nd

26:33.0

 

 Hallie

18th

29:02.4

 

 Abby

34th

33:51.8

 

of 44