Sophomore Elizabeth Dean, along with four other runners, did very well in this year’s cross country districts. At 11:30 a.m. on a cold Thursday, the runners climbed aboard the bus and were off to Clackamas Community College, where the meet was being held. This decided if Varsity made it to state, and therefore was very important.

When asked how she felt about the day’s meet, Coach Holly Galonis said, “We have trained hard all season, and as a whole, the team is healthy. Both boys and girls teams have the potential to qualify for state. Forest Grove and Tualatin are bringing stiff competition, but we are prepared.”

The team’s record was also an indication of how well the team did. The boys had a combined record of 5-2. The girls had a combined record of 4-3. Each of the four teams (JV boys, JV girls, varsity boys and varsity girls) had at least one runner place in the top ten. For JV girls, Bailey Hardinge placed 2nd with a time of 23:19. On JV boys, Michael Adkins got 8th place with a time of 18:48. For the varsity girls, Hannaly Duff-McGaughey placed 9th with a time of 21:14, and Elizabeth Dean placed 4th with a time of 20:36. On the boys varsity team, John Caufield placed 9th with a time of 17:26.

After all the races were over, co-coach Kuffel said, “We had some great individual performances today in both boys and girls races! We were hoping to get a few more runners to state, but the competition was tough, with Newberg, Tualatin and Forest Grove having great team efforts. We are proud of the Tigard team.”