Happy Soggy Sunday everyone!

THIS WEEK'S RACING REPORT:

WEDNESDAY VS. LIBERTY AND ISSAQUAH
BOYS:
Our boys raced two of the best 3A teams in the state on Wednesday and. as a result, chose to rest a few of the varsity runners to concentrate their efforts on the Nike meet this weekend. Although Liberty and Issaquah beat us, Neil, Jacob, Alex P and Brent were followed by a great group of JV boys as Michael Hutchins, Steven Soroka, Alex Bell, Ryan Steele and Josh Glantz helped fill in for their team.

This week Rahul Brito was recognized by the coaching staff for his big improvement in Wednesday's race.

GIRLS:
The girls had a pretty cool experience on Wednesday getting the first 7 places in their meet vs. Issaquah and Liberty. That's even better than a perfect score. But Jillian A, Emily A, Christine, Natty, Jillian R, Katrina and Emily M weren't the only ones to race well. Lindsay Brooks ran her best race of the year so far. Hannah Neibulski and Taryn Blache ran great races with Rachel Jiang not far behind them. Kelly Toy ran 23:16 for 3 miles so she's just about ready to break into that sub-24 club.

Taryn and Malisa Smith were recognized for their great improvement. Malisa ran a great race and out-kicked an Issaquah girl at the end.


SATURDAY AT NIKE PRE NATIONALS:
BOYS:
In the Freshman Boys Race, Steven Strozyk and Kenny Tolbert ran strong races.
In the Sophomore Boys Race, Michael Hutchins, Steven Soroka and Alex Bell all ran great times and are getting very close to breaking the 18 minute barrier! They were joined by Ryan McCord and Pat Figari who both handled the challenge of this competitive meet well.
In the Junior Boys Race, Ryan Steele found he missed running with his sophomore teammates but had a good day, and Erik Walton showed he's ready to join the sub-20 crew.
In the Senior Boys Race, Josh Glantz represented Newport well.

The varsity guys ran in a very competitive Varsity Division 1 Race (the most competitive race of the day other than the Jim Danner Championships). They placed 12th overall. Neil Baunsgard ran a tough sub-17 race finishing in the top 30 individuals. He was followed by Andrew Coover who just missed breaking 17 himself. Brent Magnusson, Jacob Dance, Sam Staples, Neil Walton, and Alex Poplawski filled out the varsity group. Sam and Neil W ran particularly good races each running tough 5k PRs of 17:41 and 17:51. Sam is running about 30 seconds faster than his freshman 5k PR from last year already, and Neil is only a freshman himself!!! Results are at: http://www.dyestat.com//?pg=reg72007CrossCountryORNikePreNationalsDiv1-Results


GIRLS:
This Saturday the girls also raced at the Nike Prenationals Meet. The girls didn't have as many of our JV members attend the meet b/c of other commitments, but we did have some great showings.
In the Freshman Girls Race, Maya Graue and Katie Uppendahl ran very well. Maya showed that she is almost ready to go sub-24 and Katie reached her goal of breaking 26 minutes.

Instead of running in the Sophomore JV race, Taryn Blache really stepped up to stand if for Emily Meyer who was at a band competition. Taryn didn't know she would be doing this until Friday night when we found out Lindsay Brooks was very sick. It isn't every easy to run your first varsity invitational, but Taryn had to do it at the most competitive race of the year. We are super proud of her. Not only did she run tough, she ran a HUGE 5k PR, besting her previous 5k time by over a minute and almost breaking 22 minutes.

Taryn's great race helped to support the rest of the varsity squad who also had an excellent day. FOUR GIRLS BROKE 20 MINUTES! Jillian Altizer, Emily Albrecht, Natty Plunkett and Christine Dollard ran those sub-20s to all place in the top 40 in the very competitive Jim Danner Championship. Jillian Raftery and Katrina England ran 5th and 6th for all, also running 5k PRs. The result of their efforts was a 5th place trophy (only losing to the 4th place team on a tie breaker). They beat several of the very best teams in the entire Northwest!!!!
Results are at: http://www.dyestat.com//?pg=reg72007CrossCountryORNikePreNationalsDanner-Champs-Results