Our Valley Royals Distance Group had a fantastic time at the 42nd annual Nike Hole in the Wall XC Invitational this past weekend in Arlington, Washington. The event, whic is hosted by Lakewood High School, is the premier high school cross country meet in the Pacific Northwest. Featuring over four thousand athletes in 14 different races, this event is guaranteed to bring out the very best in those that compete.
Our day started out with Laken Olson stepping up his game and coming back from a fall to defeat 300 runners in order to win the Frosh/ Soph (Grade 9 and Grade 10) boys race. This was followed by Lyla Teer winning the JV Gold race, which was an outstanding accomplishment for this grade 9 runner against this kind of competition. In our third race of the day, Adrianna Buitelaar managed to step up her level of performance yet again to win the elite women’s race and run within a few seconds of the course record, making her one of the fastest women to ever run the course in the last 42 years.
Riley Simmonds finished with a strong 21st place finish in the elite men’s race after running an aggressive 4:42 first mile and then paying the price a bit. Jonah Dyck moved to a new level with a big win in the Varsity Bronze race, which saw him prevail against 200 runners, and William Steiger had an outstanding run to finish 13th in the same race. Our day finished up with Kai Lainchbury and Santos Svelander competing in the citizens race, and both of these athletes finished well up in the field with personal best performances.
I would like to thank all of the families who participated and made this such a great day. We will definitely be heading back next year. Well done Royals!! – Coach Scott
