September 7, 2019
On a day that only distance runners and mosquitoes would love, you earned 12 personal best times and earned 6 t-shirts for finishing in the top ten of your grade level race!
Our middle school boys started us off on the right spiked foot. Ben ran his second mile faster than his first to move up to 8th place, earning a substantial personal best and a t-shirt. Eddie also moved up the second half of his race, finishing 26th. Liam, in his first cross country race, started a little too fast, but hung on for 30th place. Eilam ran well to earn 92nd place. He has improved a lot since he began cross country just over a year ago.
Our middle school girls, while fewer in number, ran well. Teagan earned 19th place, running as a 6th grader among mostly 7th and 8th graders. Abigail, running in her first cross country race, finished in 50th place and said it was fun. That’s the kind of attitude we like!
Henry G. was our only 9th grade boy. He ran very close to his personal best time to finish in 64th place. Margo was our only 9th grade girl. She ran side by side with another girl for most of the race before unleashing a powerful kick that left her competitor stumbling to the finish. She missed her personal best by a few seconds but earned a t-shirt for her win.
Our 10th grade boys began a long streak of personal records. Cullen started a little quick and had some trouble breathing the second half of the race, but managed to hang on for 6th place, earning a personal best time and a t-shirt. Evan improved his personal best by 49 seconds to finish 22nd. Noah improved his personal best time by a whopping 1 minute and 49 seconds!
Salma continued the parade of personal bests, improving her best 2 mile time by 17 seconds. She looked strong and said it felt good. Peter finished in 15th as our only junior boy, earning a personal best by 31 seconds.
Our 11th grade girls raised the bar a bit, finishing 3rd and 4th in their race. Katie improved her personal best by 27 seconds while staying pretty close to the leaders for much of the race. Izzy, in the first of two competitions today (she is playing soccer later this afternoon) improved her personal best by 4 seconds. Both girls earned t-shirts for their efforts.
Henry S. was our sole senior boy. Despite sore legs from all his recent hard work, he ran well to finish 5th and earn a personal best by 21 seconds. He earned our final t-shirt of the day.
Our senior girls wrapped things up for us. Skylar ran side by side with Izzy during most of the race before abandoning Izzy with her finishing kick. Not bad for someone who is running a bit low on iron. Well, more than a bit. Izzy did manage to improve her personal best by 32 seconds. Mari finished in 31st place while improving her personal best by 1 minute and 21 seconds!
This was just your first race, competing against many runners who were running their third race. But you were sharp, ran mostly evenly paced miles, and showed some competitive skills to win your piece of the race or win the race. This bodes well for the remainder of your season.
Next up, after picture day (smile!) is the Private School Invite. Maybe Goldilocks will determine the weather and it will be just right for a change.
Results are available at Gopher State Events.
