Recap: As mentioned in the meet preview, the Lake Invite is a great first meet for middle school runners. It’s a flat, open course and it separates the 7th and 8th graders out instead of running everyone in one race (the only meet on our schedule that does so). Because it also lacks the intimidation of experienced high school runners and intense high school coaches roaming about the course, it’s a relatively safe environment for the new runner as well as a change for returning 8th graders to be the “big shots” at a meet. This meet is not without its challenges though: the course has changed every single year we’ve participated so we never know exactly what the route is, and the field has gotten more competitive with new schools showing up.

Our middle school team was a green bunch this year, with eight of the twelve runners competing for the very first time in a cross country meet. Three of the four veterans were on the girls team, with Kayla Gleckler matching last year’s fourth place finish with a 13:11…just seven seconds shy of her middle school record time from last year’s NWOAL Championship meet and with almost perfectly even splits. Jocelyn and Emma showed similar patience in posting near even splits for their races. Jolie took advantage of the confidence built during last season to run almost six minutes faster than her previous Lake meet. Lindy performed well in her first race with very consistent split times, and Izzy came across the line as the only returning runner to post a personal record in the first meet of the season. One effort worth calling out belongs to Trinity Clampet, who ran the entire race start to finish. For many new runners, cross country is the first time they’ve done any sustained aerobic activity and it can be a real challenge adjusting to that type of effort. Trinity showed great effort and determination in going wire-to-wire for her very first race.

For the boys, Anderson put forth a really solid run at 13:20, showing similar consistency to Kayla in running almost even splits. Inexperienced runners tend to go out much faster than they can sustain, leaving their second mile much slower, so it’s great to see middle school runners with even splits in their first meet. Isaac and Carson both put in great efforts for their first race, slowing some in the second mile but hanging on for a strong finish. Owen showed the poise of a veteran runner in overcoming an early fall in the beginning of the race and run negative splits on the way to finishing over a minute faster than last year’s time. Finishing up for the Vikings in the 7th grade race was Brayden whose enthusiasm, though it tends to make pacing a challenge early on, will in the long term likely serve to make him a relentless competitor.

Here are the results for the Middle School:

Middle school cross country is about learning basics, just like any other sport. You have to learn the fundamentals before you can move on to the advanced concepts, and our middle school runners showed us that they’re off to a great start. The foundations they are building now will carry them through the rest of their running careers at Evergreen, and we’re very proud of the work they’ve put in and the well-deserved results they saw in this first meet.

Full Event Results are available on Baumspage.

Up Next: After a short turnaround, the middle school runners competed at the Defiance Early Bird Open. Recap coming soon!