The first annual Winter XC “Track” Meet was held on December 18th. The GFC
winter runners decided it would be fun to host a track meet with a
collaboration of Central and Red River runners; 22 people attended with an
even mixture of runners from both schools. We broke the people into four
separate teams that were randomly drawn from a hat by our “celebrity” meet
official, former Central great, Camron Roehl. Some of us knew about
Camron’s surprise visit and hyped everyone up trying to make them guess
who our “celebrity” guest would be.
The four separate teams were named after obscure countries to mirror the
Olympics. Team Saint Lucia was comprised of Emily Cox, Karly Ackley, Katie
O’Flannigan(RR), and Leif Larsen. Team Jamaica included Rachel Torrey,
Richie Osborn, Brenna Bertsch, and Ben Hutchison(RR). Team Chad was made
up of Rachel Cox, Maxxie Powell, Will Valentine, and a collaborative
effort of Darian Colgrove and Madison Diemert. The last entry was Team
Zanzibar which was compiled of Zach Relling(RR), Parker Carrell(RR),
Peyton Campbell(RR), and Ty Boucher(RR).
The meet started out with the “Two Mile” which was just 16 short laps
around our 140 meter track. Only Central runners competed in this event
because of Red River’s tardiness. Leif claimed the title in a new Central
High School “record breaking time” of 6:13. Karly also “broke” her own
record taking the title for the girls in under 9 minutes.
We scored every event as if it were a cross country meet, where the
lowest score wins. There was no girls or boys race division. They raced
and scored together as equals. Saint Lucia took the lead right away with
Jamaica in second, followed closely by Chad. Next was the 3x100 (we still
lacked RR at this time), which was messy and chaotic because each person
only ran half a lap on our already tiny track. Jamaica got first in this
event.
As we were getting ready to begin the “mile,” our friends from across town
showed up. Fashionably late... of course. We put all their names into a
hat and added them to our existing teams and made a new team, Team
Zanzibar, for the leftovers. The 1600 meter was off. Leif took the win
followed closely by a wave of Roughriders. Karly won the 1600 for the
girls. Jamaica took the lead after the last 2 events followed by St.
Lucia, and a tie for 3rd between the new Team Zanzibar and Team Chad.
Madison had to stop at this point due to injury and Darian stepped in for
the “4x200.”
The “4x200” was ran in separate heats, two teams per heat. The team with
the fastest time overall won the race. Team Zanzibar won the “4x200” with
Team Chad close on their heels. Team Saint Lucia was right behind Chad
with Team Jamaica bringing up the rear.
The 800m was the last open event run at this meet. This, too, was run in
heats, 4 heats of 4. Former Red River runner, Brandon Klave, joined in on
the fun, running single in this event. He took the winning spot, but,
being he was not part of an official team, was promptly removed from the
official rankings. Ty Boucher ran in the first heat without one of his
shoes on, finishing in 1:22. Feeling like he could redeem himself with
both shoes on, he ran it again in the second heat, coming in two seconds
faster, but coming up short behind Will Valentine, who finished in an
outstanding time of 1:16, capturing second place. Leif ran the third heat,
his biggest competition being Parker. Leif, maybe letting the last couple
of wins get to his head, ran this event with approximately 10 pounds of
medals hanging around his neck. Making a ruckus the entire time with his
bouncing medals, Leif still managed to take the win, giving Team Saint
Lucia another single point.
The last event was, of course, the “4x400.” Because of lack of time,
Camron decided that every team would run at once. Brandon Klave went to
the final turn to let the receiving teammates know which order to stand in
when getting the “batons” (which were actually just extremely long glow
sticks). Team Zanzibar took the lead immediately with Team Chad closely
behind thanks to Darian. But, Maggie, who has never been in track before,
was unaware of how to receive a baton and dropped it. Not to be
discouraged, she fought her way through, staying in third. Zanzibar
finished the race with the lead. Team Saint Lucia came from behind to take
second, Team Jamaica in third, and Team Chad took their fourth place
finish with pride.
After all of the points were added up, it was no surprise that Team Saint
Lucia had claimed the title. Team Jamaica was awarded the second place
trophy and coming in one point behind them, almost making a real comeback
after not even running the first two events and forced to take ghost
runners, Team Zanzibar was third. Team Chad sat comfortably in fourth
place, with our medals that were too tiny to fit around our heads.
But the prizes and awards weren’t over yet. The Paper Plate Awards were
still to come. Every runner, and Brandon and Camron, got a sheet with all
of the possible awards written on it. They were told to vote on who they
believed should win each award and the person with the most votes was
presented with the award. These were the results:
Try Hard Award - Ty Boucher
Weirdest Form - Parker Carrell
Least Amount of Effort - Emily Cox
Best Legs - Karly Ackley
Least Prepared - Will Valentine
Sweatiest Runner - Ben Hutchison
Most Intense Sprint Face - Darian Colgrove
Biggest Fail - Maxxie Powell
Heavy Breather Award - Maxxie Powell
Best Outfit - Rat Torrey
Most Aggressive Runner - Leif Larsen
Loudest Runner - Leif Larsen
Cutest Made-up Couple - Will Valentine and Karly Ackley
GFC’s Favorite RR Runner - Katie O’Flannigan
RR’s Favorite GFC Runner - Rachel Cox
It was easily one of the hardest but also most fun workouts we’ve ever
done. Hopefully there will be more in the future! Now all we can do is
wait for the actual track season to come!
Written by Captains Leif Larsen (Jr) and Rachel Cox (Sr)
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