It's here!!!

Cross Country season is here!  As much as I hate summer coming to a close, I love Saturdays in the fall.  The Bob Shul Invitational was our 8th year in a row in West Milton.  The morning started with the high school boys who dominated their race, followed by high school girls.  We won with Versailles and West Liberty Salem right behind us.  To be honest, these three teams may just be the top Div. 3 teams in the State right now.  It gave us an early picture of what we need to do to keep the title!

This is early in the race, but look at those Orange jerseys with the white stripes!  How many can you count? Oh yes, Maria there in front is currently second in the race....Natalie was happy to race again after a "cut-short" track season.  Our fingers are doubly crossed.  She has been pain-free for a few months now!

Jonathan and Andrew ran a little while later.  This was Jon's first official Cross country race as last year he participated in football. It was very exciting to have 2 kids racing at the same time again!

This is Coach Topp giving last minute instructions. After all, there are quite a few new runners in that pack! 

This is a zoomed in shot of the boys at the starting line.  Andrew looks very ready and determined and Jon, well, he's justing making sure his foot is one in front of his brothers! ha ha!  There were 335 junior high boys and a kid from Sidney took the early lead. Well, he managed to keep that lead the whole race and was about 50 yards ahead of Andrew when they ran into the stadium. 

I know this is not a very good picture, but actually I captured just how far back Andrew was. On the very right of the picture is the Sidney kid in yellow, and if you look closely, you can see Andrew way back there! At this point in the race, they roughly have a 400 to go. That is a very large gap to close in on.  When Andrew passed me (I'm shooting), I knew he was going after him.  And he did, and he won!!!

  

There you can see Andrew in front of him and the red banner is the finish! Way to go Andrew! He ran a 11:12.  It is his PR and a time that has him in the top 5 junior high times in the state.

 Ok... what I don't have pictures of, and actually is just, if not more awesome, is that Jonathan was right behind the Sidney kid! He finished 3rd.  His first ever race, 335 kids, Divisions 1, 2 & 3 and he had an 11:27 which beat Andrew's first race time from last year! What an awesome race! I'm so proud of you, Jonathan! (And you thought you couldn't run?   :)  

I addition, we have a new runner to the mix.  Jacqueline, my niece is a 7th grader and decided to join CC. The junior high girls also won their race for a complete sweep for Minster Cross Country!  

It is going to be an exciting year.  Well, an exciting 2 1/2 months that go way to fast! This next Saturday we travel to Greenville. Come and watch all four races...and then stop at Maid-rites for the best burgers in the state!