Recap: You just never know what to expect in the first meet of the season. You sort of get a feel for how workouts have been going, but at this point in our training cycle it’s normal to feel a bit fatigued as we continue to adjust to increased intensity of the workouts and the start of the school year.  The great thing about the Defiance meet is that the course gives a fairly realistic picture; it’s not terribly fast because of the hills, but it’s also not really a slow course (*cough*Archbold*cough).

With that said, the results from this weekend were excellent. Twelve of our high school runners set a personal record, including nine of the ten men.  Now, the men’s team is young so it’s easy to PR when it’s your first ever high school 5k, but even compared to their middle school times they were significantly improved. For example, Chandler’s split at mile two was 21 seconds faster than his two mile PR from the end of last season.

Alexis finishes up her Defiance run

Other runners watch as Heidi passe them on the way to a strong finish

Katie finishes strong

Sarah chases down a Montpelier runner in the final sprint

Sarah keeps a steady pace through mile one

Trinity works past competing runners in her final kick

Trinity starts moving up through the field at the mile mark

Ben fights to pass runners at the end

Thomas looks strong through the first mile

Pete keeps up the pace at the mile mark

Alex chases down a Fayette runner at the end of the Defiance race

Gavin works through his first 5k of the season

Jared guts it out all the way to the finish

Phoenix surges past runners at the end

Chan works his way to the finish

John and Chan work together to move up

Augie settles in around the mile mark

The high school men line up to start

Ashley pushes to the finish

Ashley and Katie work together through the first mile

To give you an idea of the progress made, consider the following:

• Jared PR’d by 2:14
• John PR’d by 56 seconds
• Pete PR’d by 15 seconds
• Phoenix was just 25 seconds off his PR and 1:09 faster than last year’s Defiance time
• Heidi ran 1:27 faster than her last Defiance race in 2014
• Katie and Tom both took more than 20 seconds off their Park-o-Rama 5k times despite it being a hilly course

The ladies’ team finished 9th overall out of 18 teams, and their team average of 24:42 for the top five runners was 3 seconds faster than the top individual Lady Vike from last season. The men didn’t have enough runners to score last year, but their top 5 average of 21:00 crushed the four-man average of 24:10 from last year’s meet.

Here are the official results for the High School:

The middle school race is a bit different at Defiance. Whereas the high school gets a flat, fast mile to start before heading into the hilly section, the middle school heads straight to the hills.  This makes the impact of “The Hill” at the end of the race that much more significant.  Despite this difference, both Kayla and Owen were able to take time off their PR from last Thursday’s Lake meet, dropping 2 and 38 seconds, respectively.  While neither team had enough to score in the meet, our first three girls finished in the top 15 of the race, and Jolie showed incredible determination in passing several runners coming up that intimidating hill at the end.

Owen sprints to pass another runner at the end

Kayla turns into the final sprint

Paige and Kayla celebrate a successful race

Chris turns the corner to the final stretch

Paige crosses the bridge near the end

Kayla tracks down another runner heading to the final hill

Jolie puts in a very strong finish

Evan rounds the corner for home

Kennedy crosses the bridge to the final hill

Will works hard to finish strong

Kennedy turns the corner as parents and coaches cheer her on

Paige pushes towards the finish line

The middle school team kicks off their race

Here are the official results for the Middle School:

Up Next: The High School travels to the Otsego Invitational at Mary Jane Thurston State Park this Saturday 9/2, and the Middle School has a week off before heading to Archbold on 9/10.

Full Event Results are available on Baumspage.