The "Run-Down": Finn Hill 5000

 

Scenic Alderbrook Park is normally a secluded and quite place tucked away in the hills just east of Hockinson. The "quite" part changes when 13 high school XC teams with nearly 400 high school runners came to compete at the Finn Hill 5000 race. It was a beautiful day on the drive out there and it was about to get better!

 

Before the Future Varsity Girls stepped to the starting line for the first race, we already knew the difficulty of the course would produce slower times than normal. There was plenty of uncertainty about the placings and the times of this race, but we know Lydia Lyall was the 3rd girl across the line. Her official place was 2nd and all official times were in error. Apparently one of the top two girls (both from Camas) were inadvertently omitted or intentionally disqualified. This also moved Junior Grace Collins from 10th to officially 9th; both of them walked away with medals around their necks.

 

The Future Varsity Boys, we staged the big "Run Off" for the final varsity slot for next week's All-League race. Sophomore Luke Belzer captured that honor as he moved all the way up to 6th place (19:48.9); not far behind was Junior Jacob Bowen (9th in 19:56.7). Both of these Panthers exhibited exceptional kicks on the final finishing stretch. Another noteworthy performance came from Sophomore Isaac Harvey as he was the only boy to post a Black Course PR. His 22:09.6 was over 6 seconds faster than his time on our own Cottonwood course. The Future Varsity boys placed 5th, just one point off of the 4th place Skyview team.

 

The most fun began when the gun went off for the Varsity Girls race as they were eying 2nd place, worthy of a trophy. In Dave Wottle fashion, our girls hung back the first 500 meters before making big moves. Freshman Courtney Owens moved up from about 25th, to the top dozen by the mile mark and then to the 1/2 dozen mark at the finish line. Her 22:02.0 was the only female Black Course PR for the day. Her teammates also finished well: Senior Hannah Wright was 15th, Sophomore Meredith Collins 17th and Junior Karina Miller was 21st (oddly enough!). Senior Megan Anderson settled the score against two RA Long girls that got her last week and her 30th place finish was enough to help our girls beat all but the Camas team (defending 4A champs). We finished 25 points better than RA Long, and just 4 points ahead of Columbia River.

 

The week's workouts were designed for maximizing the District performances for the boys, but they did leave their legs a bit heavy for today's race. We set out to prove we could be Mark Morris and Hockinson with tired legs, to prove we could contend for the district title when legs were fresh. Senior Thomas Normandeau looked anything but tired as he tailed League leader Aaron Brumbaugh for the first half of the race. Thomas broke open a small lead in the last mile, making Aaron hurt tremendously. It did come down to the kick for second place, and Aaron did a slightly better job of battling the pain and nipped him in the home stretch. It was a great showdown and a good preview of what to expect next week. This was obviously Thomas' best race of the season. Sophomore Bailey Duncan ran in his normal #2 slot for the Panthers. Fatigued by the week's work, he was a few too many people behind Mark Morris and Hockinson #2 and #3; he vowed to be on their heels (or letting them look at his) by the District meet. Our third runner most of the way was newly coronated team captain Sophomore Collin Manning. Junior Nicolas Velardi edged him out at the wire for 28th instead of 29th place. Collin's effort was about 1 second off of his black course PR. It is nice to have Collin back in the scoring column for the Panthers.

 

When the team scores were calculated, our boys place 5th, just one point shy of Mark Morris and four points in front of Hockinson. However, if scored as dual meets, we would have beaten Mark Morris on the 28 to 28 tie breaker, but lost to Hockinson - XC scoring can be a strange thing some times. Regardless of those facts, we can confidently step to the line at the district meet knowing that fresh legs can carry us much further, all the way to Pasco.

 

The best memories of today capped off with the girls sharing the warmth in a penguin style huddle as it cooled off before the awards, and a full moon illuminated fun-filled return trip with a bus full of XC "Lunatics".

 

Next week we gather with the other four teams in our league Thursday on Hockinson Meadows "Black Course" the fastest Black Course we race on through the season.

 

  

Coach Terry L. Howard

 

Here are the line scores:

 

Varsity Boys

 

Mile 1

Mile 2

5000 M

 

Thomas

3rd

 

 

17:05.1

 

Bailey

24th

 

 

18:49.6

 

Nicolas

28th

 

 

19:04.0

 

Collin

29th

 

 

19:04.5

 

Aiden

34th

 

 

19:14.4

Anthony

39th

 

 

19:43.9

 

of 88

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Future Varsity Boys

 

 

 

 

 

Luke

6th

 

 

19:48.9

Jacob B

9th

 

 

19:56.7

 

Blake

20th

 

 

20:43.4

 

Isaac

51st

 

 

22:09.6

PR - Black

Blake

63rd

 

 

22:39.9

 

of 138

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Varsity Girls

 

 

 

 

 

Courtney

6th

 

 

22:02.0

PR - Black

Hannah

15th

 

 

23:02.7

 

Meredith

17th

 

 

23:17.6

 

Karina

21st

 

 

23:35.0

 

Megan

30th

 

 

23:55.2

 

Sydney

36th

 

 

24:19.0

 

Brooke

48th

 

 

25:20.6

 

 

of 83

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Future Varsity Girls

Corrected places?

 

 

(revealed later)

Lydia

3rd

 

 

25:13

PR - Black

Grace

10th

 

 

26:43

 

Gabby

34th

 

 

29:12

 

Bekah

52nd

 

 

31:13

Maxyne

72nd

 

 

35:25

 

of 75