Hurricane Invite

Some strong performances were turned in by the Panther harriers at the Hurricane Invite.  The Varsity girls were led by Rachel Stone (3rd) and Mia Hart (5th) in the first race of the season for both of them.  For each of the other girls it was their first Varsity race ever.  So it was great to see Liz Lunt, Taylor Boyer, Aubrey McBride and Kaelie Gillespie out pushing themselves and doing the best they could for our team and placing 5th (just off 4th with the tie-breaker).  The JV girls ran well with Nicole Heinrich taking 1st.
The guys also ran very well.  Michael Finch took home his 2nd victory in as many races this season with a hard fought win over Jason Quinn of Dixie.  Casey Kimzey ran a strong 6th and Jason Lindhardt had a good race for 9th.  Byron Warby (12th) and Matt Young (14th) rounded out our scoring for the team title!  Taylor Abel ran very well too (placing 15th, just .2 secs. behind Red Leader) as well as freshman Nick Hill in his first Varsity race.  The JV boys were the biggest pleasant surprise of the meet with Ryan Archibald making all of Canada (and PVXC) proud winning the JV race.  It was great to have Colton Bowler back in his first race from stress fracture (3rd) and Kyler Prisbrey running 4th in his first race.  Overall we placed 7 in the top 12 and 10 in the top 20.  This crew should really be pushing the Varsity squad and making everyone better.
We also had 17 Youngster run in the 1.5 mile Open Race!  Great job to all of them as they have been running very well in the heat 3 (or more) times/week.  Dallin G., Jarron N., Alex K., Alex H. and Scottie B. all placed in the top 10 for the boys, and Cristina G., Rylee H., Josie B. and Ellie B. did the same for the girls.
It was a solid week for the team.  We did the tough adjustment to the heat in the afternoon and the start of school and the earlier mornings of AM practices.  And we had some good racing experiences at Hurricane.
This coming week is a busy one, so plan accordingly.  Varsity (and top JV) girls need to remember practice Monday morning at 5:45 so we can get the whole thing in.  On Tuesday we have our Team Time Trial.  The races will start at 4:45 for the Youngsters, then 5:00 PM for the boys, followed by the girls just a few minutes later.  (We will get the bulk of our mileage before the time trial, so we will start practice around 4:00 Tues. afternoon (depending on the necessary mileage.). Following the race, we will have our Parent Meeting for ALL Parents and Athletes of PVXC (including Youngsters).  On Saturday, we head up to Cedar for the SUU Invite at Bicentennial Park.
Again, great job the week.  Our team is making great strides and with some important weeks of practice heading our way we have room for a lot of improvement to reach our goals.