Amazing day in Pasco for our state runners. Headline goes to our state champions Sophia Rodriguez and Owen Powell. Sophia brought MI the first individual girls title in program history, and I believe ran the 5th fastest time ever on that course. Knowing her competitive spirit she will undoubtedly be working her way up that list her next 3 years. Absolutely outstanding performance. And not to be outdone by his teammate, Owen added a XC state title to his 1600 track title while smiling and chatting with his friends along the way. He raced his friendly rival from Blanchet stride for stride until tightening the screws with 400 to go and sealing his win, running the fastest time of the whole day, despite very slick course conditions. This is not news to any of you reading this, but they are two incredible, humble and fun athletes and do our program proud.
The pride doesn’t stop with our champions. We are awfully proud of Victoria Rodriquez coming in 2nd – as in the Rodriguez girls sweeping the 3A race (as they would have swept the 4A race too). She runs beautifully, seemingly effortlessly, and apparently finds the Sun Willows course much easier than her past Pennsylvania state runs. Bodie Thomas and Matthew Lawrence also landed on the podium, finishing 10th and 12th. Even under my sky-high expectations, I could not have imagined this type of finish for these 5 athletes. They do our program proud.
As for team results, the girls who had not been to Pasco as a team since 2015, finished 7th. What progress. And while the Rodriguez’s clearly led the charge, this was a true team effort. Anna Ahrenholz, originally an alternate, deserves special kudos for dealing with the last minute decision to run in place of Sophia Sung who was sick. She was fantastic. And Dora Cheng and Sophia Fan, each passed 12-18 girls on the last mile helping move us from 11th at the 2nd mile to 7th by the end. Congratulations ladies.
The boys team was 8th, falling short of our season goals but better than last year. Still proud of the effort AND we have one more race this season to put an exclamation point on what has been a remarkable season. They head to Boise for NXR along with the Rodriguez sisters and will compete as the mighty Midlake Herons.
Looking forward to celebrating this season on Wednesday. See you there!
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