The "Run-Down": Ultimook XC Race

So every year, it is different. This year, it was very different for our Ultimook trip as we did not make the overnight trip to Tillamook as a team. Some families ventured down on Friday to that area to camp out somewhere in the vicinity while us others got up before the break of dawn to make the 2 hour trek to Tillamook. This meant less work for me throughout the week, but a bit more chaos to deal with on site as runners were coming and going more so from the race site.

We were happy we were near the coast as that kept the temperatures about 15 degrees cooler than those at home. But it was still quite warm and the mud pit was acting more like quick sand or Portland Cement just poured at a construction site. This “enhanced feature” was not enjoyed by too many runners as it caused several to truly get stuck in the mud for multiple minutes, including a couple of Panthers.

The Middle School girls race was highly anticipated, as our new crew of Panthers were planning to hunt down our neighbors from Liberty Middle School, the team that had won every single year since the inaugural race in 2012, usually crushing their opponents with some quality runners and sheer numbers. They had 65 of the 160 finishers this year. But our quality bested their quantity. Hitting the mud pit, our Panthers had a commanding lead as we had four of the top 7 runners. At the finish line, Panthers grabbed three of the top 6 places, all ahead of Liberty’s first runner. Those three Panthers were all seventh graders: Chloe Johnson (1st), Sydnee Boothby (3rd) and Emelia “Sparky” Warta (6th). Veteran eighth graders Paige Maas (24th) and Lillian Mucha (26th) sealed the deal with fine finishes. Running in the her first real distance race, seventh grader Sydnee Momakov told the world that we had a backup plan if one of our scoring five would have encountered a mishap. She placed 29th as our solid sixth runners. The final score gave the Panthers a 3 point win over the team that the Tillamook coach thought was “unbeatable.”

Our eight grade boys toed the line with a lot less experience with nine of our 11 boys running their first Panther XC race. Seventh grader Blake Mattern acted like a veteran since he has had a few years of ‘The Stride’, track and road racing experience. He managed a 17th place finish out of the 128 finishers. Classmate Travis Gibson finished a step behind new comer eighth grader Ricky Pierce, who probably smiled most of the way through the 3K race. They placed 35th and 36th. Those were ‘pleasant’ surprises, but the ‘big’ ones came from our two returning runners: Gavin Keyser captured 4th place when he was usually in the teens in the dual meets. He ran a 22 second PR and over 4 minutes faster than last year! Will Gunn placed 26th, running 4 and a half minutes faster than last year and a PR by 1:47! WOW!!! Those huge improvements helped the Panthers place a very competitive 4th, just 3 points from the next place up.

In the novice race, Sophomore Carson Dayley got his first taste of XC running placing 20th of the guys and Senior Grace Graham led Sophomore Denise Lara as they placed 13th and 14th out of 43 girls. Our lone Future Varsity girl senior Alexis Maniscalco battled not feeling well, but still received a bouquet of flowers for a top ten finish to help her feel better.

Our Future Varsity boys were a solid second place thanks to Sophomore Hayden Stinchfield and Freshman Maddox Edwards squeezing into the top 25 as our 4th and 5th runners. Sophomore Caden Lowman (5th) and Freshman Sam Lewis (6th) earned top ten awards and Freshman Ethan Mills (20th) was the middle man in our scoring five.

Our HS girls were subjected to a slight emotional letdown going into this race as Freshman Olivia Dinnel encountered an injury earlier in the week. Since it was an early season injury, we shook that off and looked to improve on last year’s third place finish. The Tillamook girls (state champs last year, losing no runners and gaining a two good freshmen, were the overwhelming favorites. But the Panthers ran the other teams into the ground (or the mud in some cases). Junior Amelia Pullen spent a little too much time in the mud to stay with the leaders. She could not make up that much on runners that were her equal (the two hammered out the best close finish of the day) so she ended up 3rd. Junior Brooklyn Bausch paced Freshman Meryl Keeler to a top 20 finish, Meryl edging past her at the finish with them placing 18th and 19th. Fabulous improvements from Sophomores Morgan Stinchfield (62nd to 25th) and Kaylee Timmons (79th to 44th) showed why we plan to be a much better team this year. Next year, we have our sites set high as to push, or even catch, the Tillamook girls (they will lose their 2nd runner) as we keep improving from year to year.

Our boys were significantly more depleted than our girls. It was tough to defend our title (two years running) when our consistent senior Tanner Lees and highly heralded freshman Jonathan Wells were not eligible due to our 10 practice rule, something that the Oregon teams do not need to contend with. With both of them, we probably would have pulled off a close victory, but we settle for third behind the two best Oregon teams in their 4A (pretty much equivalent to 2A in Washington. Junior Gabriel Dinnel left Stayton’s Casey Pugh in the dust after the second river crossing for the second year in a row, but this time it was not close. He waltzed to a 33 second victory; his 16:53.3 is the second fastest time on that course, just 7 seconds off the record. If he had been pushed, the record would have probably fallen. Classmate Troy Prince-Butterfield managed a comfortable top 10 finish (9th), but our best surprise in this race was an 18th place finish from another classmate Ian Palmer. Fellow Junior Warren Henderson and Sophomore Jackson Keyser wrapped up our scoring five with 41st and 49th place.

10 minutes after we left Tillamook, we were already willing to turn back and enjoy the more comfortable weather than what was waiting for us at home. But we knew the heat we ran in last week, and what we will experience this week, will make us stronger!

Next week, we do not race. Our next meet is in Longview against RA Long on September 13th.

Coach Terry L. Howard

Here are the line scores:

Varsity Boys		5000 M
Gabriel	1^st	16:53.3	P.R. Black
Troy	9^th	18:38.1
Ian	18^th	19:18.6
Warren	41^st	21:03.1
Jackson	49^th	21:23.6
Koy	108^th	24:03.0
	of 173

Future Varsity
Caden	5^th	20:45.9	P.R. Black
Sam	6^th	21:23.6
Ethan	20^th	23:05.6
Hayden	22^nd	23:52.7
Maddox	25^th	23:54.7
Brett	67^th	27:24.0
	of 119

Novice		3000 M
Carson	23^rd	17:31.5
	of 49

Varsity Girls		5000 M
Amelia	3^rd	20:44.7
Meryl	18^th	24:37.3
Brooklyn	19^th	24:39.1
Morgan	25^th	25:24.5
Kaylee	44^th	27:03.9
Annabelle	55^th	27:59.4
	of 127

Future Varsity
Alexis	5^th	26:53.6
	of 48

Novice		3000 M
Grace	13^th	20:27.8
Denise	14^th	20:33.9
	of 43