2021 Portage Invitational

70s and humid – no wind

It was a good day for the Packers on Homecoming day.  The day got a little warm due to humidity, but was pretty good running conditions.  The course is a double loop course, and we talked about moving up in the second loop and the girls did just that.  Senior Taava Johnson led the way running a PR 20:53, moving up 17 places in the 2^nd mile, and 8 more in the 3^rd.  Elise Pfeiffer (so) also PR’d today, 24:36, moving up 6 slots and 8 in the 2^nd and 3^rd miles.  Shyann Callison (fr) ran 25:10 to PR by almost 3 minutes.  She also moved up each mile.  Rachel Maddox also ran her best time of 25:33.  The girls did a great job running in a huge race, 50 teams were on the line with 306 finishers.

The boys varsity turned in a great showing placing 4^th in the 50 team field and were 1 point out of 3^rd.  This was an awesome learning experience for our young squad.  The team also did a great job moving up throughout the race.  When scored by the mile the team was in 10^th (351 pts) place at the mile, moved up to 6^th (295 pts) at the 2 mile mark, and finished in 4^th with 257 points.  Conor Somers (sr) was our first finisher in 4^th place at 15:51.  He moved up from 11^th at the mile.  Brennon Schuler (sr) moved up big, 26 places in the 2^nd mile and 11 in the 3^rd to run 16:57.  Gavin Schuler (sr) had a great 2^nd mile, moving up 17 places, but faded a little in the 3^rd mile running in 17:01.  Then came the underclassmen.  I have been impressed with the growth of this group.  They are having ups and downs, but are learning and getting better.  Cole Lowery (fr) ran a PR 17:40 moving up 26 places from the 1^st mile.  John Christensen (so), moved up 39 places from the mile to run 17:57.  Sean Pettis (so) ran a 15 second PR moving up 37 places to finish with a 17:59.  Carter Sherman (fr) PR’d by 34 seconds (18:21) in a race that we felt he did not run that great in.  I know that sounds kind of bad, but when you run a PR in a bad race, that’s a good sign.

The boys JV team kept the ball rolling with Freshman Gabe Jones winning the race in 17:45 to PR by 35 seconds.  Gary Springstead (jr) placed 5^th after done a great job moving up and getting across some pretty big gaps to PR in 18:19.  Luke Bradley (fr) move up 37 places after the first mile to run 19:41, while Blake Taylor (fr) ran 20:24, moving up 13 places from the 1^st mile. 

Results can be found here - https://www.portageinvite.com/race-results  they seem to work best on a cell phone.

Our next race will be the conference championships on October 19 at Branstrom Park – 4:30.

Coach