RACE COURSE: 1.5mi. A relay format - five runners to a team - for most and also an individual race that followed the same course. A mix of narrow grass corridors with a few tight turns, pavement, hard-packed gravel, three hay bales to jump, and maybe 30m+ of water 2-3 deep that runners had to ford in the final 1/4mi. It was never meant to be fast, but it's certainly unique :)
GENERAL: XC is back. Thank you all for a terrific first weekend of traveling, camping, racing, and sleeping on the bus ride home. You were excellent teammates and super easy to coach and chaperone. For that, we are truly grateful and it was a fun first weekend all around! The race reports this week were admittedly hard to fathom. We saw most of you (as evidenced by the many photos below) but given the shape of the course and the constant motion aspect of 3 relay teams with 5 runners each (plus the spectator trail that cut through the middle of the ponds) there were a couple of you that we amazingly never saw. Very sorry about that! Next week is a little more normal down in Wenatchee.
There was LOTS of determination and grit on display with the water crossing especially, and our little 1B/2B program of 23 kids showed quite well in the overall results, especially when you start to realize that schools like Ellensburg have 120 runners and put together 15 relay teams! There were 75 teams in total.
Dexter, Sandra, Will, Leki, and Aksel finished 6th overall in 46:37 (less than 30 seconds out of 2nd).
Tristan, Brodi, Samra, Ingrid, and George finished 40th in 54:18.
Orlo, Yasmin, Liam, Alida, and Hunter finished 57th in 59:52.
Great work one and all!
A little glitch in the timing system means that overall times and places are still a work in progress. The Ellensburg coaches are working on it and we will let you know when there is more information. Enjoy the photos below and the many excellent efforts matter far more than clock times in such a unique event!
Omar, back at it around the halfway point in the 1.5mi individual race!
Finn, smiling just a bit at the start of the water crossing...
... and then getting the arms to work through the deeper middle section!
Orlo (leg one), with some sort of directional hand gesture.
Dexter (leg one), also nearing the mile and stretching things out on the flatter gravel...
...before winning the prize as the only LBHS runner to fully submerge (moments earlier).
Tristan (leg one), out of the water and finding his stride for the final turns to the finish.
Brodi (leg two) rippin' it from the start in his first-ever HS XC race!
Sandra (leg two), poised and running tall and strong on the gravel mid-point of the race...
...and then showing every bit of what that water felt like in the final few feet of crossing!
Brodi, still churning those legs and feeling the burn in the middle of the water as well.
Will (leg three), getting out smooth and quick!
And Samra (leg three), doing the same!
And also at the water crossing, where running next to others is a little wetter than normal!
Liam (leg three), and there were also hay bales just before the water!
Leki (leg four) lifting those legs and striding for home!
Aksel (leg five), getting into a good groove to start the final leg.
George (leg five) doing the same.
Aksel... and again the demonstrable agony of the water-logged legs. So much fun!
Alida (leg four), cruising the home stretch and doing a great job of using her arms!
And George, like all before him, getting through those final challenging depths of the water.
And finally, Hunter (leg five) who moved through the water better than almost any other runner that we watched all day!
Congrats again to all, and apologies to
Ingrid and
Yasmin who ran great as well but somehow avoided having their photos taken.
Ben, Calvin and Birch, super glad that you all could join us as well and you'll all be racing soon enough!
The schedule for next week in Wenatchee is:
11:40am Boys Frosh/Soph JV 5k
12:20pm Boys Junior/Senior JV 5k
1:00pm Girls Varsity 5k
1:30pm Boys Varsity 5k
2:00 Community Race 5k
2:30 Awards
The HS bus will leave LBHS at 8am. We should return around 5:30-5:45pm.
