Grace at State – Cross Country

We are so proud of our cross country racers! Our team had a big day at the State Meet, taking advantage of the strong competition to bring out best efforts. 

7th grader, Eden, raced a lifetime best and qualified for the National Meet on October 21! Our girls team (Arsema (6), Fiona (6), Avielle (5), Ellen (8), and Esme (6)) raced bravely, with most running their season best in the 2-mile distance. The girls finished 11th in the state overall. Our boys team was led by Cai (5), who had a huge personal record. Adam (7), Elijah (3), Torsten (4), Grey (5), Zeus (4), Henry (4), and Chase (3) all met or far exceeded goal times. The boys’ team was 16th in the state this year. In the Open Race, Grace (4) and Finley (4) crushed their goal times to race impressive efforts in their first 2-mile race ever. 

There are so many amazing moments from this meet that will stay with our coaching staff. These athletes represented our team and our whole Grace community so wonderfully. We love the game spirit of our racers on the starting line. We love that they made the most of “Viking Zone” (they stayed alert and used the downhill slopes out in that back field where a lot of runners are tired and tend to slow down). We are proud of Ellen for seeing another athlete struggle and encouraging her. We saw two of our runners go down to the ground shortly after the start, as the crush of runners sprinted off the startling line and they didn’t give up or get discouraged; they jumped up and raced great!  We saw everyone give their all, in what they could do for this day. It was amazing!