Posted On: October 12, 2020 Posted By: Stuart Chowning
Saturday was a chance to finally see our 5K training in action.
It’s been an interesting season as we wondered from week to week what our races would look like. Most years our NKAC meet falls on one end of our fall break and we struggle to post a full team. This year was no exception. Not having our full team for either race makes comparison and checking in difficult.
The boys race started the day, and we were missing two of our varsity squad members. While we posted a stronger 1-5 split at 1:05, that was partly because we were missing a few people and fell back in the pack a bit. Not our strongest race, but considering the absences and a few overuse injuries nagging us, we saw some solid performances in our last regular season race. Highlights included Adam Ruschman leading the Camels this week and Aiden Bauer stepping up in a big way to finish as the Camels 2-man to achieve his goal of being under 19:30. Ethan Schwalbach ran his best time of the season. Corey Robisnon also ran a stronger race and was 4th on the team, achieving his goal as well. Brady Baker was the 5th Camel to cross the line also with a season best, while Colin Grothaus battled some fatigue and soreness. Josh Yang, and Morgan Reynolds also ran their season bests in the 5K. The Camels finished 8th, but that place does not prove where we are right now. We are stronger than that without a doubt.
In the JV race, Oscar Bankemper posted his best performance of the season and crushed his goal by nearly two minutes! Other highlights included Jackson Stewart running his best time of the season. Braden Neiser, Charlie Alford, Zach Demoss, and Brandon Robinson all ran season bests as well. There is nothing better than ending the season at our best, and the Camels definitely showed they worked hard all season to be there!
In the Lady Camels varsity races, we were plagued by the same issues as the boys: missing athletes and light injuries that were just enough to hold us back. Emilie Zengel led the pack with an 8th place finish and the first of many season bests for the ladies that day. Kaitlyn Strange, Noel Slone, Sophie Loesch, and Kennedy Johnson all ran season bests and posted a 1-5 split of 3:52. The Ladies places 7 of 9 teams. Missing some of our top runners set us back a bit, but the ladies ran their best races thus far, showing we are in the right mindset.
In the JV race, Destiny Fury was the first lady Camel across the line in 33rd place. Following Destine was a string of season bests run by Haley Deegan, Alicen Grizzell, and dynamic duo Tricia Verst and Sydney McKinney. Tricia and Haley also both beat the goals that they had set for themselves and ran their strongest 5Ks.
Connect with Stuart at stuart.chowning@gmail.com