Summer Training for Junior High Cross Country Runners, Part I

Running is a perfectly natural act that most children engage in. Cross country is an extension of that but - and it's a critically important but - cross country training is not a natural activity. Keep that in mind as we take a look at your junior high school runner and a summer training program.

The first thing to note is that junior high school athletes are not adult athletes.

Their bodies are still growing and developing. As adults, we tend to think of the 13 year old runner as a small, lithe version of ourselves. They are not.

While in the middle of growth spurts where bone length increases, the joints temporarily weaken. The connective tissue and the muscle react to the change in bone length to adapt but they are behind the growth cycle. It's during this period that many young athletes suffer joint injuries.

It's not just the joints that are weak. The growth plates in young runners are very susceptible to stress fractures until they ossify, or harden. The repetitive nature of running, especially when extended far past normal activity levels, enhances the risk of injury.

A longitudinal study of high school runners - not even the less physically mature junior high runner - performed by Dr., Michael Rauh, demonstrated that girls suffered injuries at a rate of nearly 17 injuries per thousand athletic events (AE refers to practices and meets, so a typical 6-8 week season included 36-48 possible events) while boys suffered about eleven. A clear finding from Ruah's study is that girls are at a much higher risk of injury, in large part due to the physiological changes that take place at the hips, increasing the stress on the knees and ankles.

Kids run because it's fun . . .

Adults run for a variety of reasons - competition, weight-loss, relieve stress, pride, the runner's high - but kids run for a single reason. It's fun.

Kids don't train in the same manner that a professional marathoner does. Not only will the body not withstand the stresses for the majority of athletes, their ability to enjoy the activity will degrade.

The single most important goal of any training program must take the play aspect into account. Too often, a parent or coach, seeing an athlete with a high level of prowess, will ramp up the training regimen in an attempt to accelerate the development of the athlete and unintentionally turn running into work.

Kids run too hard, trying to be good too fast

As a parent or coach, we need to be aware that the kids are often the worst judges of their current ability. Many underestimate what they can accomplish and our goal should be to patiently help them test those boundaries.

Some young athletes will overestimate their ability or be too focused on the competition aspect of running. Runners in this camp will need to have someone there to dial them back without hurting the enthusiasm they have and, when they take on too much, show them what they did correctly.

The second part of that equation is getting them to understand that it takes 6-10 years to start reaching their potential. Going slower, building progressively, and understanding that they are a unique individual that will respond to training differently than their peers - high intensity may work better for some runners, high volume for others - will yield better, long-lasting competitive results.

For runners who don't want to compete forever, it will keep it fun and injury-free. That's a winning situation for everybody.

This post is already longer than I anticipated so I'm breaking it down into a couple parts. Friday, we'll move past the cautionary section and take a look at what we, as parents or coaches, can do.

Washington IIB District 9 Track and Field Championship

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 001 The Steeplechase Pool

The Washington IIB District 9 Track and Field Championship began today in Idaho. To some foreigner from, say, Seattle, that might seem odd but living on top of a border alters the way you look at towns around you. Intellectually, we understand the University of Idaho isn’t in our state, but, in practice, they’re a close neighbor, as is the City of Lewiston.So the event is being held at the recently renovated (2012)Dan O’Brian Trackon the U. of  Idaho campus. Idaho staff demonstrated their competence and were very helpful getting all the systems –power, sound, and such – up for the teams. Field events started promptly at 4PM and the running events were close. The meet is spread over two days to allow the athletes an opportunity to recover from multiple events. The top three go to the State meet.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 012 Holbrook and Ray 4x200m

The first running event, the women’s 4x200m relay saw Asotin, with Sarah Nicholas anchoring the squad, win handily though DeSales refused to quit. An intense battle between TO-GP and St. John-Endicott for the fourth slot wasn’t decided until the last five meters as Katie Holbrook (TO-GP) and Jazmyn Ray (St. John) swapped placements on the last straightaway, with Holbrook having just a touch more speed at the finish. The ladies at Walla Walla Valley Academy secured third place.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 014 Womens 3200m

The next event, the women’s 3200m was not nearly as close as Lucy Eggleston (Asotin) ran a smart tactical race in the warm conditions for the first five laps before opening up a large gap on Heather Siegel (St. Johns) and exploding on the last lap. Emily Adams of Waitsburg-Prescott continued her solid freshman season by taking third, headed for State, likely not for the last time.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 Asotin Crush

The men’s 1600m was dominated by the Asotin squad. Headed into the final lap, Asotin had runners in the top five positions, all poised to break 5:00. Chandler Tiegan led them all from start to finish, virtually unchallenged. Thomas Weakland took second with Brian Strobel uncorking a powerful kick to round out the state entries.

On a side note, one of the Asotin runners went down in the heat. I’d like to thank EJ Meserve of Waitsburg-Prescott. While Cap Perry, the TO-GP coach, seeing the situation, hollered at me to direct me into their camp for water, EJ had already grabbed a cup and was handing it to the Asotin young man. Good and fast thinking for an athlete who, seconds before, had been running the mile. If anybody knows EJ or the Waitsburg coach, give them a thumbs up.

Off to the intermediate hurdles, men first. Owen Lanning (Waitsburg) and Wesley Hendrickson (WWVA) followed up last week’s close race with another beauty, Lanning winning again. I think Sergio Alexis Pena was third but I was distracted by the battle up front and didn’t refocus on time.

In the field events, we led off with women’s javelin, men’s triple jump, men’s shot, and women’s pole vault. For the second half of the afternoon, we flipped men’s events for women’s.

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District 9 Chamionship 2014 Annie Bailey Javelin

Results aren’t up (as yet – I’ll update as new info comes in) on Athletic.net but there was a nice competition in the women’s javelin between Dayton’s Kaitlyn Andrews and Annie Bailey (St. John). Piper Loop was her usual dominating self in the women’s shot and had a good set of puts, perhaps season bests, just in time for the state meet. Skylar Olsen (Desales) looked good, too. Emily Adams (Waitsburg) showed surprising (to me, at least) hops in the women’s triple jump. Olivia Pakootas looked good but the couple of jumps I saw were a little short of her usual but I only caught two of the six jumps as I drifted to the men’s javelin.

Update: Kaitlyn Andrews (Dayton) edged out Olivia Pakootas by 4" to win the triple jump. Rachel Gfeller (St John) took third and is headed to State.

Cody Whitmore, if I heard correctly, blasted a javelin throw of 150+ feet which would be a new PR for the young man. Update: Cody threw 153'08" while brother Dirk threw 149'02".  Dayton Krull completed the sweep for Asotin. 

The men’s shot put was very competitive with the Waitsburg men putting pressure on a traditional Asotin strength in the power event. Nate Barlow and Zion Branson (Waitsburg) took second and third while Jacob Swearingen (Asotin) won.

That’s it for now. I’ll get numbers into the report when I have them.

Thanks to Sal Lopez for giving me permission to get on the infield to take some of these photos. He called me 'media'. You guys deserve better but, still, we're making progress.

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4 Tips to Avoid Running Dry

Hot weather is back. Yay! No more layering on sixteen articles of clothing on the upper body and six on the legs to fight off winter. To celebrate, I went our on the North Asotin Creek trail in just shorts and a singlet, plus a two bottle hydration pack, and picked up a nice bit of tan on the shoulders. Since we're finally hitting the warm weather, I planned out my water needs. You should, too, even if going for a short run. I know, I know, you don't need to 'hydrate' for a short run, all the articles say so. Humor me.

You plan for water (and electrolytes) for all your runs - and your other activities. I've seen more than a few runners head out to suffer through a fifteen miler because they did a three miler the night before - with the Hash House Harriers, where beer-drinking replaces water intake.

So, four tips.

1. Make sure you start out hydrated. Drink appropriately  before your run - indeed, throughout your day. That way when you hit the roads or trails, you're tanked up and ready. Before you head out for the run, drink 8-10 ounces of water. Also start with your electrolytes charged up. Include high potassium and magnesium foods in your diet.

2. Carry water with you or have planned water stops. Since I trail run a lot, I have a Nathan hydration pack with a pair of 20 oz. bottles, plus some handhelds, plus a Camelbak. When I run on pavement, I plan out the spots where I can get water - I don't have to stop but it's important to have that dialed in ahead of time.

3. Drink frequently. Provide your body with a steady source of water in small doses so it has time to process. Sloshing while you run is unpleasant. Also, drinking too much water is potentially dangerous as you can severely dilute your electrolyte balance. There is a great article at active.com that covers this (and caffeine use, as well).

4. Self-monitor. You can do everything apparently right and still end up in a bind. That's what happened to me on the trail run up the creek. At the ten-mile point, I was down to a few ounces of water - and I had stopped sweating. No bueno. I generally need about 4oz per mile. Took 40oz with me after drinking at the start, began drinking at mile 2 - and ran out because my intake was higher than planned by 25 percent. Because I was paying attention to the signals my body sent me, I knew that I was in potential trouble and took the (for me) appropriate action.

That's when I started walking. Could I have finished the run? Yeah, probably. Could I have finished without hitting heat exhaustion? Maybe. But the next several days of training could have been disrupted. Better to take it slow and give my body time to adapt to the heat.

And the advice not to hydrate for short runs? Drink sensibly (applies to water as well!) to make sure that you are not consistently dehydrated. In 100 degree heat, I lose 6 ounces of water per mile. If I don't replace that water, even for a series of short runs, I'll soon be perpetually dehydrated.

So, hydrate - not until you are bloat but enough that you don't often feel thirsty.

Logo for InlandXC

I've been posting the race report from meets here (more will go up at the district meets - not sure I'll make it to sub-districts) but, eventually, all of this would go to a new website, InlandXC.com . It's still in design but I got someone to put together a logo. It's okay, it will do, but . . . if somebody has a better idea, and wants to play with Photoshop, go for it. You'll bragging rights that you created the logo and the pleasure of seeing your work every time you check in to see how the other races have gone.

So, this is what I have. If you think you can do better, get cracking and send it along. We might even be able to do two or three and rotate them.

InlandXC Logo

Dayton JV Meet

What a contrast in meets from Undeberg last weekend to the Dayton JV Meet yesterday. Where the Undeberg was efficient and featured 36 teams with fields full of competitors, Dayton was low key, with entire events scratched due to a lack of participants. The biggest difference, though, happened again and again around the track. Coaching.

I listened in as the gentleman running the pit explain: “You’re slowing down at the last two steps. That’s where you need to really be quick, those last three steps.”

Jessica McCain (Asotin)  listened – and PR’d at the event.

Sal Lopez: “You’re opened all the way up before you start your throw. Remember, check the time,” he demonstrated the

sideways scuttle that throwers use to align their bodies while holding the javelin in ready position, “and then, at the end, when you start the actual throw, that’s when you open up.”

The big meets draw some crowds. This one was sparsely attended even by family but these little meets are the ones where we get to see the athletes that will be challenging at District and State levels, especially in the throwing and jumping events.

The potential is there. The shot putters need time to grow into their bodies, time in the weight room. A pair from Waitsburg-Prescott, Mark Montgomery and EJ Oppelt, did very well. So did a pair from Asotin, Conor Martin and Phillip Downey. Three sophomores and a freshman. The top two on the women’s side, Skylar Olsen (DeSales) and Alyssa Hendrickson (WWVA), were freshmen.  I’m not a particularly stout individual but even I added 40 pounds of muscle from my freshman year in high school to my senior year. These youngsters will do the same, more so in the case of the men.

Another difference is the waiting. Undeberg moved at a relentless pace, flight after flight of athletes cycling through the events. Yesterday was more relaxed. For some events, that translated to a fair amount of standing around time. Long jump lines stretched back as the leapers tried to get all their jumps in before their running events.  Running events were slower into the blocks and, in several events, men’s and women’s races were combined.

DeSales ran well in the 1600m – one of the combined events – with Isaac Mata following up a good showing at Undeberg with a sub-5:00 minute mile. Daniel Ness(Desales) outkicked Brady Mulikin (Asotin) over the last three hundred meters to secure second. DeSales also took the top two women’s spots with Anna Ruthven wining.

In the 3200m women’s race, Jade Porubek (St. John-Endicott) won. Jade is a senior that I’ve watched on the cross country course and she isn’t often the fastest woman in the field but there are very few runners that work as hard as she does. It was nice to see her get the win at Dayton.

Jessica McCain encouraged her every time Jade went by the high jump pit – it’s easy to see why Jessica won the sportsmanship award last week at Undeberg. She’s a positive influence out there.

That’s it for the Dayton JV Meet. If I have the opportunity, I’ll be heading over to the Meet of Champions in Lewiston, ID this afternoon. At best, I’ll be late but maybe I can catch the later distance events and some of the relays.

The Union-Bulletin has a good recap.

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If I trained enough, I could use these running recovery tricks

That's a fairly substantial if in my case - but Running Times has an online article on running recovery tricks that you should look over if you're in the middle of your track season. Some you probably already do, some you won't, and a couple might be worth trying. Not sure if I'm up for liquid nitrogen - and they sound a little hesitant, too. I was a little surprised at the bit about warm-ups doing more to prevent muscle soreness than cool-downs. Since my race pace is a warm-up, I should be pretty darn safe.

Undeberg Invitational, Race Report

Howdy, glad you’re back again. Settle in because a lot happened at the Undeberg Invitational yesterday. I’ve broken the meet down into two parts. I thought it was a terrifically run meet and you can find my comments on that in this post. On to athletes.

The first running event of the day was the women’s 4x200. Colfax won the event in a time of 1:50.49 with a team that has two freshmen and a sophomore. I watched from the first exchange point. The second place team from Ritzville was in the lane next to Colfax. Ever try to get a picture of perpetual motion? The two girls were practically vibrating while they chatted, one bouncing on her toes, the Ritzville runner going side to side instead—until the gun went up and the race started. The Broncos had a lead from the starting split coming into the first exchange, but the Colfax team, with Sarah Kraut leading off, had a series of good exchanges and ran a season PR to edge Ritzville by less than a second while Colville stayed competitive, pulling in third place.

The women’s 3200m was much less competitive as freshman Shania Graham of Republic ran away from fellow freshman Mariah Pena (Medical Lake), winning with a time of 11:56. Heidi Hennings (Ling-Ritzville) stayed close on Pena’s heels, clocking in at 12:37, two seconds behind the freshman, good for third place.

The men’s 3200m, run much later in the day, finished with a terrific sprint between Colville’s Kevin Carpenter and Lakeside’s Ryan Coffman. Carpenter edged by about a half-second, 10:01.27 to 10:01.85. The field was crowded with 32 runners and several more positions were decided with hard finishing kicks. The trio of Cody Alvarez (Othello), TJ Baun (Colville), and Brady Mullikin (Asotin) finished within less than a second and a half between them.

I caught the hurdles this time and watched Ryan Whitmore (Lind-Ritzville) win both the 110m High hurdles as well as the 300m intermediates—avoiding a loss in the intermediates by nearly flinging his body over the last hurdle as he got his feet out of step and missed the approach. He edged Marco Pena (Othello) in both. The longer race was decided by .05 seconds. Luke Walker (Colville) took third in the 300m and sixth in the 110m. Joe Lang (Royal), Shawn Weisner (Pomeroy), and Colton Forman (Kittitas) finished in the top five in the 110m hurdles while Owen Lanning (Waitsburg-Prescott) took fourth in the 300m hurdles with Ben Elliott (Colville) joining his teammate Walker in the top five.

Colfax ran out two women fresh from the 4x200 relay, Bailey Mackleit and Parker Warwick who placed first(16.67 seconds) and fourth respectively in the high hurdles. Allison Wujek (DeSales) was second, Karlee Maioho (Wilbur-Creston) third, and Mara Riley of Seattle Academy fifth.

Mackleit came back to post a season’s-best 48.84 to win the 300m event. Freshman Karlee Maioho moved up to second. The women’s 300m hurdles were dominated by younger athletes as sophomore Jadyn Dandreth (Reardan), freshman Allison Garza (Othello), and another skilled Colfax runner, Olivia Mellor, a sophomore, rounded out the top five.

I missed the 100m sprints as I wandered around the field events.

Pole vaulting turned out to be a bit of an adventure. The Colfax coach Jason Cooper was kind enough to answer some of my questions since I admittedly know very little about the technical aspects of vaulting.

The wind, gusting from nearly behind the vaulters, effectively shoving them more quickly into the bar as they elevated. Apparently this is preferable to a side wind which alters the direction of the pole plant and forces the athletes into off-balance, sometimes dangerous take-offs. I’ve joked for years that, over-tall and over-broad as I am, I make a good sail. It’s less funny when you’re balanced 12’ off the ground on a slender rod and hoping that you’re still over the pit.

Coach Cooper’s vaulters are probably looking for better weather, but Sam Daily tied his personal best and won with a vault of 12’00”. A pair of Davenport men tied in height, Tanner Perry tying his PR while his teammate, Austin Zeller set a new one. They were followed by two Pomeroy Pirates, Memo Morfin and Cole Mayfield. All five of the top men either tied or beat their previous bests.

Lakeside dominated on the women’s side, taking the top two spots. Farrahn O’Hara won, clearing 10’06” while Samantha Blake cleared 10’. Scout Cai is another very promising Colfax pole vaulter. She has good speed and elevation but is still developing her technique. Both she and Blake are sophomores. With pole vault such a technical event, I expect to see some fun battles as they both become more skilled.

The women’s 1600m. Wow! Seven of the top ten spots taken by freshmen, led by Madison Ward of St. George’s as she builds on the impressive start to her high school career with a 5:29.86. Felicia Ziemer (Lind-Ritzville) took second while Harley Strope (Reardan) was the only upperclassman to crack the top five. Mariah Pena backed up her strong 3200m with another good performance in this event. Kat Stephenson, running with a tender Achilles’, came close to a PR. Heather Siegel, the St. John-Endicott standout, was solid in sixth. Zoe Robertson (TO-GP) set a PR sneaking past Emily Adams (Waitsburg-Prescott) and teammate Katie Holbrook (a sophomore). Kiara Hoxie held off Robertson and the others to secure seventh. It’s an impressive group of young runners.

Domenic Rehm (Medical Lake) won convincingly with a 4:30. Ryan Coffman (Lakeside) ran a 4:34. Kevin Carpenter a 4:35 and Micah Dingfield (Medical Lake) 4:38. Unlike the women’s side, the men’s race was controlled by upperclassmen. The only freshman to get into the top ten was Thomas Weakland (Asotin) who set a PR with a 4:42.96 as he took seventh.

The head wind didn’t help any of the discus throwers.

Piper Loop (Asotin) continued her winning ways, picking up a first place finish again in discus with a toss of 117’03” and a fourth place with a season-best shot put of 35’07”. Alyssum Reno of Kittitas won the women’s shot put (39’03”).

Jacob Swearingen (Asotin) won both the shot (47’09”) and discus (146’09”) for the men. The competition in the shot put was close with Eli Richardson (Rosalia) heaving a 47’07.25 and James Hopkins (Reardan) keeping pace with a 45’06.5”. Inches separated Austin Oursland (140’09”, Kittitas) and Josh Brown (140’01”, Colfax) as they vied for second in discus.

Moving back to the running events (and no, these aren’t in order!), the men’s 800m race surprised the heck out of me and at least one runner. Brady McKay (Asotin) ran the fourth heat of the race, consistent with his previous efforts. The fastest runners went in Heat 1, the next fastest in 2, etc. Except that Brady apparently didn’t get that particular memo. He roared past me at the 100m mark already with a ten yard lead and I liked his aggression, attacking the race. When he came by again, at 500 meters,  the lead was up to thirty yards.

I talked to him after the 800m, before I realized he had blasted a 13 second PR and taken fourth place overall. He sounded a little stunned at himself and thinks it might be time for him to challenge the 4:51 plateau he’s been stuck at as a miler. I suspect his coach, Tim Gundy, will agree.

St. George’s took the top two spots in the race. Will Tender ran a 2:02 and Nathan Vanox a 2:06. Isaac Mata (DeSales) was next in 2:07.8.

Madison Ward and Felicia Zeimer sandwiched Shania Graham as freshmen lead the way again. Only one junior (Anna Cook of La Conner) and no seniors placed in the top ten. Ward, Zeimer, Katherine Meyer (Kittitas), Lily Vogt (Seattle Academy), Zoe Robertson (her second of the day), and Katie Holbrook all set personal records at the distance.

Coach Rick Riley of St. George’s took a few minutes to talk to one of the milers, going over the way that Steve Prefontaine would structure his week to build both his base and his speed. Since I was lollygagging in the area watching the high jumpers and javelin throwers, I eavesdropped. Interesting stuff and I thought it pretty neat that a running legend took time out during a busy meet to share his knowledge with the kid.

I think I could write an article on Rick but we’ll save that for the cross country season, I think.

Since I mentioned javelin, did you know that a javelin can rotate 180 degrees when the wind catches it? Bit wild looking. When you catch the wind just right, oh my. One of the gentlemen marking throws had to beat a hasty retreat when a Kittitas thrower, (Austin Oursland. I think) launched one and caught air. Oursland took second to Kolton Cobb of Columbia-Burbank who nailed a throw of 170'.

I went looking for more coverage of the meet but about the only thing I could find was a nice article on the DeSales team in the Union-Bulletin covering the bounty of PR’s their team had.

I caught this young man, Alex Scoggins of Seattle Academy, as he was preparing for his last attempt in the triple jump. He finished third on this attempt

(39'11.5"). Owen Lanning (Waitsburg-Prescott) won the event with a triple jump of 41'00.5" and Kameron Strobel (Colville) took second at 40'10.25".

That'll have to do it for today. As always, I know I didn't get to everybody and I'm sorry-doing what I can. You all are awesome!

All the results and placements for the Undeberg Invitational  were courtesy of Athletic.net. It's a truly awesome resource. And many thanks to the race director - having a program made this whole project easier.

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(I modified this article to correct a mistake of mine. I called Jacob Swearingen 'Josh' in error. Sorry, Jacob!)

Well-Organized: Undeberg Invitational In Ritzville

Greg Whitmore deserves to be pleased. Race Director at the Undeberg Invitational in Ritzville, his meet may have been one of the smoothest and best organized I’ve been at in years. Every track athlete and coach has a horror story—sometime an entire pantheon of stories—about meets that ran two, three, four hours long with interminable pauses between events. Undeberg proves that a race can be both well-organized and athlete-friendly.

The timing was actually done by computer run by Dennis Sakmann,with volunteers providing backup. The system worked nicely with no apparent glitches even with several very close finishes (at least from a spectator viewpoint.) The starting crew (Bill Cox and Al McBroom were the starters with Jordan Bilodeaux the Marshall) offered clear directions to the fields of runners, mostly in the distance events where lane assignments were not rigid after the first turn or lap, to try and finish from Lane 4 or out so that camera would have the best image to work determine the finishing order. I thought this might give a slight advantage to a late finisher but, after running the numbers (high school geometry for folks interested, Pythagorean’s Theorem, using the top of the straighaway to the finish), decided the difference in distance was negligible.

The crew got runners into the blocks or to the line in good order. I only saw a single false start and, even then, the gentleman who explained it to the athlete was very sympathetic and considerate of the athlete.

Over on the field side, the volunteers kept the systems moving. Two announcers kept the flights on schedule and sounded warnings when jumper or throwers had failed to check in. A bit of observation at the long jump pit and I saw how the announcers knew what was happening in each event.

The young man running the pit would inform the announcers via radio to make the “second call for Flight 4, men’s long jump.” A minute later the same would be repeated over the speakers. It kept the two announcers busy but the whole day ran smoothly as each event sent in the status reports.

The young man gave the jumpers feedback on their takeoffs, especially if they faulted. Not required of the folks at the pit but I’m sure that athletes appreciated the extra input. (The souvenir program listed Dale Anderson, Dustin Kommes, and Rob Reottger as the team there, but they were busy, and I didn’t ask names to attach to the picture.)

Another point that I thought interesting, The Undeberg Invitational meet sold sponsorships to community businesses and had giveaways by some of those. A nice idea that shows a lot about the community and the support that the Broncos (the host team) enjoys, as well as help to defray the costs to the teams and the school. The $2 entry for spectators was less than I’ve paid at other, smaller, meets this year and the $2 for the program very reasonable.

Looking forward to coming back next year.

(Next up, the race report. Patience, people, I'm typing as fast as I can. And, if you see a typo, holler and I'll fix it. And you can follow me on my author page at Facebook)

Border Wars Meet - 2B/1A Wash/Idaho

As border wars go, today's version at the Lapwai track was much more amicable than say, Russia and the Ukraine. The athletes competed hard in the  races and field but, true to form for small schools, they mingled and chatted with each other in the infield between events. The annual Border Wars Track Meet drew 11 teams from Idaho and five teams from Washington. Asotin continued its strong early season form, winning both the men's and women's titles this year, though by closer margins than the last couple of meets.

For the men, that was the lone Washington entry in top five teams as Idaho schools Kamiah, Prairie, Logos, and Kendrick filled up the points totals to top the list.

For the women, it was more challenging for the Idaho teams with Prairie, Logos, TO-GP, and St. John-Endicott in the top five.

Racing started with the 3200m for both the men and women.

Thomas Weakland (Asotin), Peter Spencer (Prairie), and Brady McKay (Asotin) led the field out with the Logos team in tow and quickly separated themselves from the rest of the pack.

McKay led the first two laps before his teammate took over. Weakland ran strong for the next five laps as Spencer stayed right off his shoulder. The Logos runners, Sage Pratt and Jonny Handel, closed on, then passed, McKay on the fourth lap. An experienced junior, Spencer waited until the backstretch of the gun lap to make his move, a powerful surge to open space between him and the freshman from Asotin. Spencer won handily with a 10:05. Logos placed three runners in the top six as sophomore Josiah Anderson finished with a solid performance behind McKay.

Lucy Eggleston made short work of the women's 3200m race, carving out a large lead early and pushing hard through the finish. Heather Siegel (St. John-Endicott) took second and Katarina Stephenson (Asotin) took third.

Unlike Wednesday, I managed to catch more of the field events, including the women's pole vaulting. Megan McCain of Asotin was competing for the first time while Skylar Smith (Pomeroy) easily won the vault, clearing 8'00".

Mike Martinez (Asotin) won the men's side, hitting 11' while Trey Pfefferkorn and Clayton Stamper (both from Clearwater Valley) placed second and third. Pomeroy locked in the next two spots with solid vaults from Memo Morphin and Cole Mayfield.

Mayfield took third in the high jump as well, tied in height but not attempts, with Kristian Carpenter of Nezperce. Darcy Stamper of TO_GP won going away. Not switching to the flop until the bar got to 5'0", Stamper skipped the jump at 6'0", coming back to clear 6'2" before moving on to his other events. A well-rounded field athlete, Stamper took fifth in the discus and shot put. Olivia Pakootas continued her winning ways in the women's high jump. Pearl Blachly of Pomeroy took second and Erica Johnson of Logos, third.

The points from sprints was spread out across the field. The men's 200m had ten teams represented in the top ten positions with Lucas Arnzen (Prairie) dropping below 24 seconds for the top spot. Nearly as splintered, the 100m featured six different teams in the top ten with Arnzen winning here as well in a time of 11.74 seconds.

The women's 800m showed that history can repeat itself, only faster. The Eggleston sisters again dueled to the finish. Madeline moved to take the lead from Lucy at the 200m mark  and opened up a two step gap. Lucy covered the move though and, again on the last straightaway, eked out first place, this time by .37 seconds.

Chandler Teigen started with the rest of the field for the 800m. That was the last time anybody stayed close as he dominated the 800m with a 1:58.64. Logos continued its srong showing in the distance events by picking up second and fifth places while Nezperce picked up third and Asotin filled the gaps in the top six with Brian Strobel crossing in fourth and Spencer Williams in sixth.

The 1600m followed a similar line. Teigen ran a 4:31, 13 seconds ahead of Peter Spencer of Prairie. Thomas Weakland (Asotin) and Brian Strobel ran well and the Asotin distance crew did a significant job of helping to secure the team win.

The relays reflected the strengths of the Prairie and Logos women's teams as they split the relays. The Logos women, in particular, seemed to function well in the passing zones with crisp exchanges. They won the 4x100m and the medley. Prairie took the 4x200m and 4x400m relays.

Kamiah held the lead dog position in three of four relays. St. John-Endicott edged them in the medley but, even then, they gathered in the second place finish. If the Asotin strengths are the distance and throwing events, Kamiah counters in the sprints, relays and general competence in the field events.

Logos men grind away in the running events with solid team work. They don't win the events but they place well and accumulate points.

Prairie, on the other hand, relies on the speed of Lucas Arnzen (100m, 200m, 400m winner), the endurance of Peter Spencer (3200m winner, 1600m second), and the jumping ability of Parker Whipple (1st triple jump, 3rd long jump.)

The TO-GP team has a pair of terrific leapers in Pakootas and Stamper and a cadre of young racers in the distance events that just need a little time and seasoning to learn how to race.

And, speaking of  athletes to watch as they learn to race, Chaye Uptmor from Prairie is a young lady who has the potential to develop into a very solid middle-distance runner. She was only three seconds behind the Egglestons in the 800m. Not shabby for a freshman.