The "Run-Down": Woodland and Hockinson @ Woodland

After last week’s fiasco of some MS girls getting lost on the course, we were hoping for a meet that was “run more smoothly.” Well, we did not get that as the first race of the day was marred. The lead pack of MS boys were directed to take a second loop rather than finish onto the track, so two Panthers plus a dozen or so other runners ran a few extra hundred meters. But looking at the results of those that ran the proper distance, here is a list of the boys (all seventh graders) that ran double digit P.R.’s (comparing to the Longview race on the 13th): Trey Keyser (14 seconds), Carson Holmes (13 seconds), Alex Holden (21 seconds) and Travis Gibson (36 seconds). Very impressive!

The Middle School girls race did go off without a hitch… well, almost. While leading the race, eighth grader Abigail Wall deviated from the course and lost the lead. When recovering, she ran too hard too soon and spent too much energy to be able to finish strong and only managed 3rd place. Seventh grader Sydnee Boothby covered for her and won the first race of her career, holding off a fine runner from View Ridge. Sydnee has been the most consistent MS Panther this year for either gender. Our ever improving eighth grader Paige Maas (5th) was another highlight of the race as the Panthers dominated by capturing five of the top six places; seventh graders Chloe Johnson and Sparky Warta finished 4th and 6th. Two other noteworthy performances came from eighth graders Piper Meek and Elizabeth Lendvoyi as they both ran a few seconds faster than at the Longview course two weeks prior.

Times didn’t matter much for our boys as we were on a “black course,” and the weather made it very dark! Juniors Gabriel Dinnel and Troy Prince-Butterfield produced an easy 1-2 finish, but junior Ian Palmer, freshman Jonathan Wells and sophomore Jackson Keyser had to work hard to out-kick the fastest non-Panther in the race, giving us a 15-48 victory over the Hockinson Hawks. A few more Panthers slipped past the first Woodland boy to give us a perfect score of 15-50 over the Beavers. The boys now have a winning streak in league of a dozen races. On the individual side of things, two boys managed to run faster on this course than on last week’s HRV course: freshman Sage Morris by a mere 3 tenths of a second, and sophomore Scott Lees amazingly by nearly a full minute!

On the girls side of things, junior Amelia Pullen waltzed through another course record in spite of the heat and the wind, but the excitement for the Panthers came from our pack of four runners outkicking Hockinson’s third girl. Senior Alexis Maniscalco led the pack across the finish line in 5th place, followed by junior Brooklyn Bausch, freshman Meryl Keeler and sophomore Morgan Stinchfield. This “pack finish” secured the win for the Panther against the Hawks, while the Woodland Beavers were incomplete. So chalk up two wins for the Panthers as they start a new league winning streak.

In three days, we return to the orange course of Nike Portland at Portland Meadows, one of our favorite meets of the year.

Coach Terry L. Howard

Here are the line scores:

Boys		1 Mile	5000 M
Troy	1^st	5:30	18:54.9
Gabriel	2^nd	5:30	18:55.1
Ian	3^rd	5:42	19:17.2
Jonathan	4^th	5:42	19:18.2
Jackson	5^th	5:42	19:19.1
Koy	7^th	5:52	19:19.7
Tanner	8^th	5:52	19:51.0
Andrew	9^th	6:00	19:54.7	P.R. Black
Caden	10^th	6:00	19:55.3	P.R. Black
Warren	15^th	6:01	21:14.8
Derek	19^th	6:33	22:10.4
Hayden	20^th	6:33	22:11.8
Ethan	21^st	6:33	22:14.7
Ted	23^rd	6:33	22:30.3
Trent	27^th		23:55.3
Sage	28^th	7:11	23:55.7	P.R. Black
Scott	30^th	7:08	24:09.5
Carson	33^rd	7:11	25:30.8
	of 42

Varsity Girls			5000 M
Amelia	1^st	6:13	20:50.7	C.R.
Alexis	5^th	6:53	23:49.3	P.R. Black
Brooklyn	6^th	6:46	23:51.0
Meryl	7^th	6:52	23:51.7
Morgan	8^th	6:54	23:55.2
Bekah	12^th	6:56	24:50.1
Kaylee	14^th	7:29	26:16.8
Olivia Dayley	18^th	7:47	27:47.1
Denise	19^th	8:11	31:48.1
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