The "Run-Down": Nike Portland XC @ Portland Meadows

 

It is not often that a high school team gets a police escort to a race. Well, that was the case today as we entered I-5 in Vancouver to cross over into Oregon. We were forced to take a pause on the on ramp by one Police Motorcycle, waited for two more heading south that cleared the way for our bus and a few other fortunate vehicles. Evidently, there was a movie shooting a scene traveling across the bridge.

 

8th Grader Morgan Stinchfield finally put it all together to run a fabulous race (12:35), improving 75 seconds over last year, and capturing 44th place and a medal! 7th Grader Olivia Dinnel improved a bit more than half as much placing 21st in 12:01. 7th Grader Meryl Keeler continues to mature as a racer, sneaking into the top 100 out of 263 by just one place. 8th Grader Emma Speath was the only other Panther in the race so the girls fell short of having a complete team.

 

7th grader Jonathan Wells finally had more than one or two runners to mingle with during the whole race. Most of them were from the all-star Bowerman Track Club team as they placed 6 in the top ten. Only two non-Bowerman kids beat him to the finish line as he placed 8th. 8th graders Dillon Tuite and Caden Lowman also received medals around their neck for placing in the top 50. This race saw many massive improvements from the rest of the squad. Runners that were noteworthy in improving over the HRV comparable course were Barret Hemminger (2:23), Ted  West (2:34), Spencer Perkins (2:45), Jacob Morris (2:54), Scott Lees (2:59), Brett Lawton (3:08), Miles O'Bryant (3:18)  and Nathan Nuss (6:33 - yep, he finally figured out how to control his pace!). Missing a few normal scorers, the boys placed 5th of 18 teams. It is amazing how having 300 runners from other teams joining the Panthers helped bring out the best in many of them.

 

The format of this meet has a different texture. The girls lined up in the first classifications of 4 levels. Junior Courtney Owens almost matched her place from last year place managing 7th while Classmate Hannah Swigert also easily medaled in 13th place, squeezing out at 4 second PR, even though she was half asleep when loading the bus earlier. Our duo of Freshmen continue to improve significantly. Brooklyn Bausch broke 23 for the first time (22:58) and Annabelle Palmer just missed (23:10). Juniors Lydia Lyall and Signe Zacho brought big smiles to the coaches' faces as Lydia returned to form (24:49) and Signe was the biggest improver over the previous week, cutting right at 2 minutes off the slightly slower Woodland course. The team score put the girls into the upper half of the meet, but 3 places out of earning a team award.

 

The varsity boys moved up one notch in the level of competition. Freshman Gabriel Dinnel looked a little sharper than the week before at HRV and shaved 5 more seconds off of his freshman record (17:37) to capture 8th place. Other lifetime performances came from Freshmen Troy Prince-Butterfield (17:59.94), Koy Chaston (18:15) and Jeffery Wells (18:51) along with Sophomore Tanner Lees (18:19). The boys just missed out on the last team award in 6th place.

 

Most of the Future Varsity runners were placed into "Class" races. Big P.R.s came from Ian Palmer (53 seconds) in the Freshman race and Bryan Lange (1:40) in the Sophomore race to impress their teammates and coaches.

 

Next Wednesday the panthers host their only home meet of the year as the Eagles of Hudson's Bay join us at William Clark Park.

  

Coach Terry L. Howard

 

Here are the line scores:

 

Varsity Boys

 

1 Mile

2 Mile

5000 M

 

Gabriel

8th

 5:10

10:36

16:37.7

P.R.

Aiden

27th

 5:17

11:00

17:16.0

 

Bailey

30th

 5:20

11:02

17:18.6

 

Troy

69th

 5:33

11:28

18:00.0

P.R.

Koy

78th

 5:34

11:37

18:15.6

P.R.

Tanner

80th

 5:45

11:49

18:19.5

P.R.

Jeffrey

100th

 5:40

11:40

18:51.9

P.R.

 

Of 143

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freshman Boys

1 Mile

2 Mile

5000 M

 

Ian

21st

 

 

19:03.8

P.R.

Andrew

72nd

 

 

20:39.6

 

Warren

87th

 

 

21:01.6

 

 

Of 208

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophomore Boys

1 Mile

2 Mile

5000 M

 

Michael

108th

 

 

21:32.8

 

Bryan

139th

 

 

22:28.9

P.R.

Preston

168th

 

 

23:43.8

 

 

Of 191

 

 

 

 

Varsity Girls

 

 

 

 

Courtney

7th

 6:10

13:00

20:30.0

Hannah

13th

 6:11

13:08

20:41.4

P.R.

Brooklyn

74th

 6:58

14:43

22:58.5

P.R.

Annabelle

78th

 7:06

14:46

23:10.3

P.R.

Lydia

119th

 7:21

15:43

24:49.4

Signe

124th

 7:22

15:52

25:13.0

P.R.

 

Of 143

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3000M  Girls

 

 

3000 M

 

Abby

64th

 

 

20:41.4

Sonata

105th

 

 

20:41.4

 

Of 180