After having the previous week off, 3 out of 4 is not bad at all. That’s how many individual champions Lakeside had Saturday at Airline.
For the boys, Cody Robinson again led the running Warriors with an impressive 5000 meter performance. Robinson beat the closest competition by 25 seconds, running a 16:25, in capturing first place and setting the meet course record. Robinson took the lead after the 300 meter mark, constantly stretching the lead from there.
The rest of the running Warriors had a very good day was well, with sophomores Logan Bailey running an 18:22 for 12th place and Tyler Davis placing 21st with an 18:54. Finishing the scoring for the running Warriors was ninth grader Timothy Mansfield finishing 46th with a 20:57 and newcomer Junior Kelvin Alexander capturing 51st with a 21:10.
There were 131 variety boy runners. Lakeside finished fourth as a team out of 13 competing teams.
The junior high boys (all seventh graders) were led by Toby Askew, Seth Levesque, and Jairo Aguinaga. Askew finished tenth with a 12:23, Levesque 22nd with a 13:02, and Aguinaga was 30th with a 13:20. The Junior High Warriors scoring was finished by Ean Staley at 89th with a 15:37 and Kendrayvious Dubose at 110 and 16:57. There were 150 runners and 10 teams. Lakeside finished sixth in this division.
In the varsity girls division Alissa Lander was absolutely dominant winning first place with a 19:36. Lander’s dominance was glaring: the second place competitor came in two minutes and forty seconds later. Lander had very good support in leading the Lady Warriors to a fourth place out of 11 teams.
Kaylee Davis was 13th with a time of 23:16, Angelina Futch was 19th with a 24:07 and Kerrigan Zachary was 21st with a time of 24:18. Rouding out the running Warriors scoring was newcomer Laura Robinson placing 44th with a time of 26:37. There were 95 runners competing in the varsity girls race.
In the junior high girls division, the Lakeside runners came up with another dominant performance in seventh grader Erika Needham. Needham from the midpoint of her race, blew away the competition running a 13:02, blistering the next competitor by 46 seconds in the two mile race. Needham was trailing at the mile mark, going uphill passed the girl from Cope Middle and never looked back. The junior high Warriors, who place fourth out of 10 teams, brought more scoring from teammates Laney Lindbergh who was 13th at 14:57, Rachel Morgan 30th at 16:15, newcomer Sarah Parnell was 31st at 16:17, and Chloe Rickman finishing the scoring for Lakeside at 78th at 18:29.
Coach Grantham’s thoughts on the Airline meet: “I am not surpassed at our performances. Our runners are getting very competitive in practice. They believe what they do in meets is a direct result of what they do in practice. These meets are good, but they are just a weekly test. Our focus all year long is on the state meet. I am so pleased to see our focus as individuals is on the team and not the self. As a coach it is extremely gratifying to see people like Logan, Kaylee, Kerrigan, Angelina, Timmy, Ean, and all the others to work and try so hard to develop the bodies God has given them to help someone else.”