Recap: All good things must come to an end, and so our 2016 Cross Country season wrapped up with the girls team competing at the Regional Championship meet in Tiffin. This was a tremendous experience for the girls in so many ways, even though the race itself wasn’t quite what we had hoped.

The day started off with a great send off, including a riotous rendition of the Evergreen Fight Song by the High School Girls Basketball team.  The girls all got flowers and balloons, and supporters lined the walkway from the school to the bus. There were also signs lining County Road 6, wishing the girls well as the bus departed for Tiffin.

Once the team arrived at Tiffin and got settled, we were able to take in the atmosphere a bit.  It certainly helped to have the HS boys team along as it kept the mood light and made it seem a little more like any other meet, and there were several siblings, Middle School runners and other classmates who joined them.  The team had a decent amount of time to walk most of the course, and as they were jogging the final 1000 meters for warm-up they got a great surprise seeing several Evergreen upperclassmen who drove all the way to Tiffin to cheer them on (the excitement led them to finish their warm up a little faster than normal).

The race itself was almost overwhelming. After watching the Division 2 and Division 1 boys races (which featured only twelve and seven teams, respectively), seeing 22 teams and over 170 total runners line up and sprint across the opening field was quite the sight.  Because this was the first time we had ever run this course, it was difficult to know how much the course actually affected the times.  From what we heard from other coaches and runners, times overall were slower than expected, and everyone’s pretty confident the weather actually played a part. With the unexpectedly warm temperatures, it seemed the air was just a little thicker than usual; so much so that an alarming number of runners were collapsing in the final 100 meters of the race.  A significant hill in the final mile of the race certainly didn’t help matters either.

Regardless, the Lady Vikes ran with guts and persistence, and they represented Evergreen at the Regional Championship for the first time since 2007.  As a team, they finished at the back of the pack…but with the experience and hunger this season has inspired, I don’t think any of us will be surprised to see that improve next season.

Here are the results for the High School:

This was a tremendous experience for our high school runners, and a great way to close out the season.  As we head into the off season, things may be a bit quieter on this site, but we’ll try to keep information up to date here as needed.  Congratulations to all of our Evergreen Viking Cross Country runners on an excellent season!

Full Event Results are available on Baumspage.