Jesse Owens was also noted for racing against a horse. Well, at Portland Meadows race track, Junior Thomas Normandeau ran like a thoroughbred. In his second race, he finally got to capitalize on running on an "orange" course, and establish a decent PR. After comfortably cruising through the first mile in about 22nd place, he responded to coaching and quickly jumped into the top ten. His finish time of 17:31 was enough for 5th place in the Junior race at the Nike Pre-National race. He was the first Panther to exhibit a medal around his neck on this day.
is the opening line in the advertisement preceding our Jesse Owens video. We now have our own 'Sacagawea', Karina Miller as she lead not Lewis and Clark, but rather her Panther teammates to victory against RA Long. She also captured her second individual victory in as many years on this course. She is really starting to like this park that runs through the heart of Longview. Karina was elated that she bested last year's time by several seconds, especially considering the tough training regimen of the week. She sported a huge smile after the race, as usual.