Congratulations to all of the Royals Athletes who competed at the Sunfair Invitational in Yakima, Washington this past weekend. Here is a race-day report from Coach Scott Svelander…
Our Royals athletes had a first rate experience in Cross Country Running this past weekend in Yakima Washington, and represented us with distinction. The Sunfair Invitational is the largest one day high school event in the Pacific Northwest and sees runners from Washington, Idaho, California, Hawaii, and British Columbia, as well as some of the eastern states. Running against this first rate competition our athletes without fail rose to the occasion. Opening the morning Riley Simmonds ran an outstanding race to finish 3rd in a field of one hundred and seventeen runners in the grade three to six division. Aryka Bennett then powered her way through a field of seventy nine grade seven and eight girls to finish 3rd and was rapidly gaining ground on the leaders at the end of the race. Just because three seemed to be our lucky number Mark Molina left one hundred and three of his competitors in the dust over the last part of the race to grab the 3rd spot once again and was closing on the leaders. Arie Wassenaar really stepped up his game in this race as well, with an outstanding 18th place finish and Kane Bang ran strongly for a beginning runner to place 51st in this field of one hundred and six runners. To finish up our morning Noah Molina recorded a very strong 17th place finish in a field of one hundred and two Freshman boys. These results were outstanding for young runners who are just starting to get serious about regular training in distance running. A good time was had by all and congratulations to our athletes and parents who participated in this event. – Go Royals!!
- In the Grades 3-6 Boys 1-mile Race: Riley Simmonds placed 3rd out of 117 athletes.
- In the Grade 7&8 Girls 1.5-mile Race: Aryka Bennett placed 3rd out of 79 athletes.
- In the Grade 7&8 Boys 1.5-mile Race: Mark Molina placed 3rd, Arie Wassenaar placed 18th, Kane Bang placed 51st out of 106 athletes.
- In the Frosh (Grade 9) Boys 2-mile Race Noah Molina placed 17th out of 102 athletes.
- The Royals thank Coach Scott for his coaching and leadership in coordinating this trip to one of the best cross country competitions in the Northwestern United States.
- For all of the race results from the Sunfair Invitational go to: https://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=4929&do=news&news_id=586485