The beautiful blue sky and the crisp fall air made for a promising day. With the sun out, the cross country team loaded the bus and headed to Clackamas Community College with one mission: to run as fast as possible.

The teams had been training all season for the chance to prove themselves at the district meet. Some runners were expected to exceed, but the team was able to step up with some of the best personal records of their season.

As the varsity girls race began, the tigers got off to a quick start with junior Hannaly Duff-McGaughey in the lead. The girls were able to stay together throughout the course of the race. By the end of the first mile, junior Elizabeth “Ellie” Dean was in fourth place, leading on the tigers with her teammates not far behind. Dean was able to finish in fifth place with a time of 20:08. Not only did Dean impress for the girls varsity team, they won the district meet and will be competing at the State Championships on Nov. 2 at Lane Community College.

“My girls did awesome today,” said head coach Holly Galonis. “They worked all season for this day and it really showed. I’m looking for them to PR and just have a great time at state.”

The varsity boys team was also able to show their strengths during the race. One mile into the race, senior Devin Roche was in eighth place, leading on the team. The boys got set back on their second mile, however, with junior John “J.j.” Caufield in twelfth place, closely followed by senior Martin “Marty” Ramos in thirteenth. Caufield dug deep during the third mile of the race and finished in eighth place with a personal record of 16:48. According to Galonis, Caufield qualified for state along with the girls.

“I feel like I did a lot better than I expected,” said Caufield. “I would’ve liked to have seen more of our varsity guys up a little farther so we could’ve gone as a team to state but I think everybody did pretty well today.”

Overall, the tigers had a positive end to their season and are looking forward to continuing their success at the State Championships.

“Everybody had the races that they deserved today,” said Galonis. “I’m thoroughly impressed and proud of everybody on the team today.”