The "Run-Down": Cottonwood MS Invitational

 

Just another day at the park? Not when we put 150 Middle School kids into two races with over 200 spectators lining the race course edge passionately cheering like crazy! In my limited experiences here in Washougal over the past 8 years, this event has become the most exciting one I have experienced (but of course I may be a bit partial to the sport).

 

For those that kept a keen eye for wildlife, they might have seen the big black two-legged panther standing about 5 and a half feet tall, entertaining the youngsters from eight different schools. The girls started things off and the Panthers (not the one in the black suit) showed they were barely the best team when counting through 5 runners, but if we could count through ten, it would have been a complete blowout! Eighth grader Olivia Dinnel picked up the last award ribbon, fifth place, virtually duplicating her time from last year. Classmate Gabby Warta improved some 15 seconds over last year, but then the big surprise came. Seventh grader Lillian Mucha was the third Panther across the line, improving nearly a full minute from the week before! Fellow seventh grader Paige Maas and eighth grader Meryl Keeler had nearly as much improvement from the HRV race as well.

 

The Panther Girls beat the Hockinson girls (one of the teams we "tied" with last week) by 8 points. That set the stage for the guys to have a chance to help bring home the single co-ed trophy. The Hockinson boys hand the boys a moderate loss the week before. As the boys race started, a torrid pace set four boys in a pack on course record pace. Eighth grade Panther Jonathan Wells was in that pack. Although that was his finishing place (11:09.6), he almost eclipsed Gabriel Dinnel's record of 11:04.4 when the first two boys did.

 

We got standard races from eighth graders Sam Lewis, Ethan Mills, Barret Hemminger, Jace Poulson and Sage Morris while we had fabulous improvements from eighth grader Ted West and seventh graders Jacob Streuli and Fischer Lees. Another seventh grader "took home the improvement" prize: Gavin Keyser improved well over a minute!

 

Our girls won by 9 points, but he boys fell a little too much short of Hockinson (28) to have the Panthers take home the co-ed team trophy again this year. But the smiles on many Panther faces make the event more than worthwhile.

 

 

Coach Terry L. Howard

 

line scores to come later:

 

Varsity Boys		5000 M