The "Run-Down": R.A. Long @ Home
We have two home meets this year, but there is a slight twist. This first one was against R.A. Long at our normal location – good ole William Clark Park. Next month, we will relocate to Round Lake to attempt to simulate the state meet course.
The weather more than cooperated; there were threats of rain, even thunder showers. But we got a nice break in the weather action to engage in our running action against the Jacks and Jills. Number wise, we had a slight edge on the boys side, but the Jills had us out numbered as their program is growing. There were just two races – the first was the boys and the second was the girls.
R.A. Long surprised us a bit as their lead junior boy is one of the most improved runners in the league, some two minutes faster than last year. With their second runner bouncing off a sub-standard race for him from the week before, the Jacks posted a solid 1-2 punch that nearly knocked us off our feet. But our depth of sub-20 runners (on our “Black” course) was more than enough to secure a solid win for the Panthers. Freshman Trey Keyser was our top runner for the second race in a row. His third place finish was supplemented by seniors Caden Lowman and Hayden Stinchfield, who edged out two of our juniors by just a few steps – Sam Lewis and Ted West. Freshman Blake Mattern and sophomore Jacob Streuli also contributed to the score by giving the Jacks more points as they strutted across the finish line ahead of the third R.A. Long runner.
The next barrage of Panthers was in the 21 minute range. It consisted of the trio of junior Sage Morris grouped with two first-year freshmen (they did not run MS XC) in Nolan Johnson and John Costa. A trio of sophomores (Blake Scott, Hayden Brown and Fischer Lees) was hovering around the 23 minute mark to round out the day.
Our boys posted 9 “Black” course P.R.s out of 13 opportunities – that’s impressive! All four freshmen (Trey, Blake Mattern, Nolan and John) fell into that camp, along with Blake Scott, Fischer, Ted (who usually thrives on the “Black” courses) Hayden Stinchfield and, of course, the overwhelming favorite to earn our Most Improved award this year – Jacob!
Our girls raced a bit more conservatively as the Jills did not have any front runners to push our lead runners. But our girls did manage “Black” course P.R.’s from two freshmen – Violet Hancock and Daya Sathyaraj (in spite of taking a wrong turn near the finish that cost her a couple of places). Freshman Sydnee Boothby and sophomore Savea Mansfield genuinely tried to make it a tie for first, but the officials had to give the win to someone and they chose Savea, which became her second career victory. The top R.A. Long girl slipped past junior Meryl Keeler at the finish, so it took senior Clara Best’s 6th place finish to secure the win for the Panthers. Our other three freshmen girls (Lauren Filipczak, Laura Wagner and Ava Rana) established “Black” course 5K P.R.’s today as it was their first attempt on such a course.
Our winning streaks for league dual meets have been extended to 21 for the boys and 5 for the girls.
Our varsity 14 leaves Friday to head to Port Angeles for a new race for the Panthers – it should be exciting.
Coach Terry L. Howard
Line scores:
|
Boys |
5000 M |
|
|
|
Trey |
3rd |
18:49 |
P.R. Black |
|
Caden |
4th |
18:59 |
|
|
Hayden S. |
5th |
19:34 |
P.R. Black |
|
Sam |
6th |
19:35 |
|
|
Ted |
7th |
19:36 |
P.R. Black |
|
Blake M. |
8th |
19:43 |
P.R. Black |
|
Jacob |
9th |
20:28 |
P.R. Black |
|
Sage |
11th |
21:08 |
|
|
Nolan |
14th |
21:15 |
P.R. Black |
|
John |
16th |
21:25 |
P.R. Black |
|
Blake S. |
20th |
22:57 |
P.R. Black |
|
Hayden B. |
21st |
23:01 |
|
|
Fischer |
22nd |
23:01 |
P.R. Black |
|
|
of 23 |
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|
Girls |
5000 M |
|
|
|
Savea |
1st |
22:30 |
|
|
Sydnee |
2nd |
22:30 |
|
|
Meryl |
4th |
22:52 |
|
|
Clara |
6th |
25:07 |
|
|
Daya |
7th |
25:18 |
P.R. Black |
|
Lauren |
9th |
26:00 |
|
|
Violet |
11th |
27:24 |
P.R. Black |
|
Laura |
18th |
31:41 |
|
|
Ava |
19th |
31:48 |
|
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of 20 |
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