The Bluejays Run Under the Lights
By Kendall Shada
The Pierce High cross country team headed down to Fremont on September 12 to compete in the Tiger Twilight, where the first race started at 5:55 p.m. and the last race started at 9 p.m.
To begin on the girls side of things Bailee Thelen and Quinn Streff competed in the 2-mile race where Thelen placed 58th with a finishing time of 18:30.0. Streff came across the finish line in 18:43.0 coming 64th place.
“One thing I want to improve on personally is pushing myself harder towards the middle to the end of the race. I typically start harder than I need to so I want to focus on using my energy towards the end of the race,” Thelen states.
On to the boys, competing in the 2-mile race were Kohen Gordon and William Blank, where Gordon crossed the finish line in 14:25.6 and ended up placing 25th. Blank finished in 69th coming across the line in 16:30.5.
Blaine Anson, Emmett Hervert, Maxwell Weber, and Kendall Shada competed for the Bluejays in the 3.1 mile race. Shada was the first runner to cross the finish line for the Bluejays overall placing 21st, and in class C placing fourth with a personal best of 16:56.5. Anson crossed the line in 18:28.8 running a personal best, and placing 13th in class C and overall placing 76th. Next for the Bluejays was Hervert placing 158th overall and placing 40th in class C with a personal best of 21:27.3. Weber crossed the finish line in 22:43.7 coming in 42nd in class C and placing 163rd overall.
“What stood out to me was who was able to run the kind of race they wanted to, given the level of talent that was at this meet,” head coach Gary Shada states. “If we are going to be where we want to be at the end of the season, we need to have more than just a couple of runners performing at or above their level at each meet.”
The Bluejays runners will compete in O’Neill on Friday, September 18 at the O’Neill Invite.
