RLCA vs. Caravel Academy vs. St. Elizabeth HS

Our first meet of the 2018 season was a tri-meet against Caravel Academy and St. Elizabeth High School and was held yesterday at Lums Pond State Park, our home course. Despite the rainy weather and lots of mud, the flat and winding course and some cooler temperatures outside made for a fine setting for the first race.

Joshua Deitrich ('19) led the Red Lion boys, placing first overall with a time of 20:17, and beating St. Elizabeth's Daniel SteenKramer (second overall) by just over a minute. Marc Sherman ('20) and Dennis Nicholson ('19) followed with times of 23:59 and 24:04 respectively, finishing in 9th and 10th place overall for the boys' race. Michael Gasorek ('22), Captain Micah Pope ('19), Andrew Tanyous ('22), and Ryan Cooper ('21) rounded out the top seven Red Lion boys.

For the girls' team, Caravel's Katy Peyton finished first with a time of 22:39. Red Lion's Faith Hollister ('22) finished first for the Red Lion girls and in third place overall with a time of 24:19. Fiona Fawcett ('22) finished behind her in 25:14, and Hannah Ye ('21) followed close behind with a time of 25:26. Captain Katelyn Walker ('19), Abi Phillips ('21), and Cathy Nicholson ('21) rounded out Red Lion's six girls. I will be out for a few more weeks due to a shin injury but I am looking forward to being able to return to running soon so we can have a full girls' team.

Full race results can be found here.

For this first race, we are all still focusing on getting back into shape for the season. This was a challenging race. According to Faith Hollister ('22), the race involved "a lot of elbows," and Hannah Ye ('21) said she was "slipping through the course." Captain Katelyn Walker ('19) summed up the race as "pain, perseverance, and puddles." Despite the challenges, we are already looking strong. Our team posted some solid times for this first meet, and we know we can do even better. We are putting our work in at practice and we have a whole season ahead of us. For now, we are "embracing the grind" (as Coach Shirley keeps reminding us), and I am excited to see what we can accomplish in the meets to come.