The "Run-Down": Nike PDX @ Portland Meadows
10 Woop-Dee-Doo’s (five each lap), a bunch of hay bales and 50 medals. That’s what most of the races at Nike entailed, exception being the MS races as they only run up and down the five Whoop-Dee-Doo’s once. The weather was perfect (for most of us) so it was time to strut our stuff.
School record holder Amelia Pullen was assigned to the Danner Championship race so that she would have many peers to race with. We knew her own school record was in jeopardy as there were a few sub 18 girls that toed the line with her. She typically moves up during the race, and this race was no different. With a half mile to go, she was a distant 13th place, but with targets to aim for. Her last second surge left her a quarter of a step from that first target. Her time was another school record – 18:25.0. She wore a big smile along with her medal the rest of the day at the course.
The varsity boys held back enough on Wednesday in order to be ready to P.R. on this day. We posted 6 of them, with senior Troy Prince-Butterfield being the only one that did not as he ran conservatively as to protect his knee (and the rest of his season). The biggest P.R. from this group came from classmate Koy Chaston. 37 seconds was the measure of his improvement. More importantly, as our sixth runner, his time of 16:54.4 apparently breaks new ground for Washington 2A teams in the month of September. Three years ago, Sehome had a 6th runner run 16:59.37 at the 2015 version of this meet, and we think we are the only ones to ever out do them in the first month of competition on any course based on this metric. Sehome won the state meet by a 57 point landslide that year! Senior Gabriel Dinnel posted a near identical “speed rating” (based on tulleyrunners.com) as he did in Boise the previous week; being on a slightly faster course, he moved up on our All-Time Panther list to the third slot with a 15:46.7, bumping Isaac Stinchfield to #4. His classmate Ian Palmer upped the ante on his level of team contribution as he cranked out a 28 second P.R. to move up that same ladder from rung #10 to rung #9. Sophomore Jonathan Wells wanted the rest of the state to know he’s the best sophomore in 2A state; his 16:43.7 ranks him #1 at this time in that polling. Junior Jackson Keyser (16:53.4) was nearly 30 seconds faster than he was in Boise as he broke 17 minutes for the first time while classmate Caden Lowman (17:33.9) ran a 13 second P.R. to claim the title of the best 7th runner in 2A state! Our boys placed a respectable 12th place (won the tie breaker against Centennial, Nevada) amidst 20 other awesome teams from 4 states; all of the 11 teams ahead of us were from larger classifications! It was a great day for the Panthers.
However, the day wasn’t over! Due to bussing schedule, we pointed our next seven girls into the “JV Championship race” which felt like a Varsity event since five sub 20 Summit girls swept the meet. Just five steps behind their fifth was freshman Savea Mansfield also breaking 20 minutes – by a mere 0.2 of a second, establishing our new freshman record. Other P.R.’s came from senior Olivia Dayley (23:57.3) and junior Clara Best (23:56.4). In the JV race for juniors/seniors, senior Jenna Beaver completed her first race in style with the highlight being her finish, as she took down a much more experienced General from Grant HS in the last 50 meters! Our girls are steadily progressing and appear to be ready for great things by the end of the season.
Paralleling the varsity boys, our future varsity boys also broke new ground as we entered the “JV Championship” race for the very first time. The only other school our size (the others were larger and commonly much larger) was Lakewood and they placed 31st of the 31 teams… and it was actually their best varsity roster! We placed 20th, spearheaded by junior Hayden Stinchfield’s huge P.R. by 50 seconds. Sophomore Sage Morris also posted significant improvement and broke 20 minutes for the first time (19:58.9). When it came to ultimate improvement, freshmen Blake Scott and Lucas Santon stole the show, each running more than 2 minutes faster than previous performances. This was their first “orange course” experience, but the vast relative improvement even after compensating for that was unmatched by any Panther on this day!
Speaking of stealing the show, we have reason to believe that seventh grader Elle Thomas is now on the FBI top 10 most wanted list! She went from being the third runner on the team to MS School Record Holder, and it only took her 11:32.1 to accomplish this feat. The girls team is also trying to make the list as they placed third over all and first of schools (versus clubs) by placing four in the top 45 of 400 runners: joining Elle (11th) was Chloe Johnson (18th – 11:37.7), Jamie Maas (24th – 11:52.5) and Sydnee Boothby (42nd – 12:13.5). They had some accomplices as seventh graders Audrey Grice and Kiersten Lees posted impressive P.R.’s. The boys MS team is also hoping to make that list as they had what we consider the most pleasant surprise regarding unexpected team placing of the day, finishing 4th of 30 teams and second place of those from schools. Eighth grader Trey Keyser made what could be a permanent mark on our MS top ten list as he now ranks 3rd behind Jonathan Wells and Gabriel Dinnel with a 10:39.7 effort that placed him 18th. Seventh Grader Samuel Grice (39th) also medaled with a time of 11:10.0 which ranks 9th on our list. Making that list was an early season goal he set for himself. Oh, I forgot to mention that there were 560 runners in this race! Four other future Panther stars proved they have made huge strides since Ultimook. Seventh graders Liam Churchman, Ian Fedderson, David Root and Corwin Whetzel all bettered their time from Ultimook by at least three minutes; the improvement King of that group was Ian as he improved over SIX whole minutes – AMAZING!
Our next race is Wednesday, our last league (double dual) meet of the year. It is also our only home meet, at which we will celebrate our seniors, which are materializing into the best class of seniors in our league’s history, maybe even our district and quite possibly 2A state!
Coach Terry L. Howard
Here are the line scores:
|
Varsity Boys – Championship Race |
|
5000 M |
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Gabriel |
18th |
15:46.7 |
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Ian |
71st |
16:33.9 |
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Jonathan |
84th |
16:43.7 |
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Troy |
90th |
16:49.3 |
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Jackson |
96th |
16:53.4 |
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Koy |
97th |
16:54.4 |
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Caden |
132nd |
17:33.9 |
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of 155 |
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Future Varsity |
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Later |
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Girls |
|
5000 M |
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Amelia - Championship |
13th |
18:25.0 |
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Savea |
7th |
19:59.8 |
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Meryl |
62nd |
22:08.6 |
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Brooklyn |
72nd |
22:31.4 |
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Annabelle |
83rd |
22:45.4 |
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Clara |
116th |
23:56.4 |
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Olivia |
117th |
23:57.3 |
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Paige |
118th |
24:00.8 |
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of 21 |
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