Archbold Invitational Recap

P.Schwan 2015, Race Recap
The varsity boys team gets their pre-race instructions
The varsity boys team gets their pre-race instructions
Chandler and Evan working around the reservoir
Chandler and Evan working around the reservoir

Recap:

Historically our first meet of the season, the Archbold Invitational served this year as our second race and gave us an opportunity to be more focused on specific running strategies.  Despite being a mostly flat and open course that one would expect to generate fast times, this course once again was slow for runners across the board, not just for Evergreen.

That said, every returning runner improved on their times from last year significantly. Grace and Leah each dropped about 1.5 minutes off their Archbold time from last year, Phoenix and Brendan both dropped almost two whole minutes, and Lilly dropped well over two minutes (almost 2:20)!  Alexis and Hannah also set lifetime PR’s in this race. That is an impressive testament to how much work these athletes are putting in.

Here are the results for the High School:

Last Name First Name Finish Place
VanOstrand Phoenix 20:52 66
Miller Brendan 21:01 71
Smith Kyle 23:16 104
Mitchey Jared 25:28 123
Simon Pete 30:17 142
Bryson Grace 24:30 39
Kuszmaul Lilly 24:42 46
Schwan Leah 25:17 55
McCormick Alexis 28:21 81
Klebold Hannah 30:40 94
Lilly flies down the final hill to the finish line
Lilly flies down the final hill to the finish line
Brendan and Phoenix battling through the pack
Brendan and Phoenix battling through the pack
Kyle passes the 2-mile mark on his way to the final reservoir loop
Kyle passes the 2-mile mark on his way to the final reservoir loop

For the Middle School team, this was actually our third meet. A volleyball tournament left us with only two runners for the girls’ race, but both Kennedy and Maddy made the most of it by setting season and lifetime PR’s (very significant given that their previous best times were on a pretty fast course at Lake High School).  The boys put up a strong showing, finishing tenth overall as a team. Ben and Shane shaved a minute and a half off of last year’s time, with both finishing in the top twenty. Evan, Chandler and Chris all gave strong efforts as well to edge us ahead of Swanton!

Here are the results for the Middle School:

Last Name First Name Finish Place
Keller Kennedy 15:20 23
Peluso Maddy 16:57 52
Schwan Ben 12:37 7
Ruetz Shane 13:00 20
Pennington Evan 15:53 97
Ruetz Chandler 16:24 104
Harzell Chris 17:36 115
Shane's teammates urge him on as he passes runners on his final kick
Shane’s teammates urge him on as he passes runners on his final kick
Kennedy surges into the second mile
Kennedy surges into the second mile
Chris heading into the second mile
Chris heading into the second mile

While the race was not as fast as we had expected, this was a good step in our progression this year.  The next several weeks will give us some great courses to run as we continue to build momentum towards the NWOAL League Championship in mid-October. Next up is the Fayette Invitational at Harrison Lake!

Full Event Results are available on Baumspage.

(Thanks to Theresa Bryson for most of the photos!)