By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.—For five seniors, Wednesday marks their last time they’ll get to go around the trail that is known as McKay Park in Northeast Salem.

Their names: Marquita Ritchey, Victoria Orduno, Noemi Gonzales, Jesus Salgado and Crystal Corral.

“Senior night is always, always a lot of fun,” said Head Coach Jason Zellick.  “We love celebrating  our victories, we love to celebrating the little things.  So having a chance to celebrate our seniors that have been out here working hard, we absolutely always will.”21

Orduno knows that she’s going to miss running the course of McKay Park, regardless in a race format like Wednesday or just like a normal training session.

“You know, I’m going to miss it,” said Orduno.  “Even though the course isn’t the best, it has a special place in my heart.  We train out there really hard all the time and I love it.  As my last race, I think I did pretty good.  I’m proud that I gave it all I have and I love the girls, I love the atmosphere, it feels great.”

Orduno finished as the second Scot in the Varsity 5K a few places behind fourth-place finisher in Hanna Caldwell and 15th overall with a time of 23:27.6.

Ritchey second that leaving it all out on the course as Orduno did as Ritchey finished a little later in the race with a time of 26:06.0.

“I left my heart out there, I ran the fastest I could,” she said.  “I took the precautions I needed to take.  I put training in to this.  I left my heart out there.”

As all the seniors finished their respective races versus West Albany and McMinnville, they as seniors, still have an opportunity to leave an legacy as the seniors before them did last year.

“I think it’s the fact of how the seniors left their mark on us last year,” said Ritchey.  “We want to be those seniors this year.  Leave our marks on the underclassmen, tell them that no matter what happens, if your best people are gone, you can push to the limits and really succeed out there.”

Gonzales finished with a time of 25:17.8 in the Varsity Girls race, Salgado finished the trail in 20:34.5 in the guys race, and Corral had a time of 28:34.3 in the JV Girls 5K race.

Some other notables from the race outside of the seniors were: Juan Heredia finishing with a time of 18:47.0, and Evan Doster finished 19:15.8 in the guy’s race.

“It feels really, really competitive,” said Doster on the racing. “At the start I was first, I kept it going for a while; I felt like I was having my normal pace but they just pass me about halfway around the race.”

As McKay enters their last district dual meet next Wednesday at North Salem High School before the District races October 26, (the team has a 3K tune-up October 19 with McNary in between), this gives Zellick and company an opportunity to heal up and prepare for a push for the end of the season.

“Getting healthy is going to be our biggest thing,” said Zellick. “We have a couple of people who are feeling some aches and pains but it’s going to be about icing and taking care of them and getting them into the right mindset, getting one or two really good last workouts and then tapering down and getting them all fresh and ready to go.”

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