By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  The head wind during the home stretch of each of the four laps of the 1,500-meter race Friday afternoon at Regis High School for the Regis Community Twilight Meet was grueling.  But as grueling as it was as each of the 19 runners in the race to pace it in the regular season finale, like much of the season to this point, serves as a good training session going into the everyone’s respective District Meets this upcoming week.

Blanchet’s Emma Lutz made a good point of it, you just don’t know how the district meet will look the day of, so the senior distance runner made the most of it.  Finishing fourth in the race with a time of 5:30.78.  Finishing behind East Linn Christian’s Daisy Lalonde and Stayton’s Haley Butenschoen and Maddy Mitzel, each finishing one, two, three respectively.

“It was really hard against the wind, but it was good training and who knows what districts will look like.  It was a good race for competition,” Lutz said. “I think with how hard of a meet (it was), it’ll make Districts more bearable and definitely State when I go up against girls again,”

With how unique of a season it has been, with the hard workouts and the weather conditions, Lutz is pleased with how her final season with Blanchet is coming along.  It has helped make her a better runner in a sport that’s second to only her top sport in Cross Country.

“It’s been a lot harder of workouts, but definitely pushed me to be better,” Lutz said.  “I’m really grateful.  It’s been a great season and I’m excited to keep running.  I’m definitely more of a cross country runner and I’m really excited to be back out doing the trails this Summer and definitely what I’ve learned from this season.”

Lutz will be taking her talents to Lewis and Clark College in Portland to do Cross Country and Track and Field, and with the Track season drawing to a close in the coming next two weeks she’s hoping to bridge the benefits of Track and Field into her freshman year in College Cross Country.

“It definitely helps with my speed.  A 5K is over three-miles and doing less than that definitely helps me work on getting that kick in at the end that I need, even if I feel awful,” smiles Lutz.

In the Meet Tatum Flemming finished sixth in the 100-meter dash, Kyle Fromwiller was eighth in the 200-meter dash.  Bridget Raffensperger and Judith Williamson were fifth and eighth respectively in the 800-meter race.  Javier Rodriguez was fourth in his 800-meter race.  Paola Diaz-Hermosillo was fifth in the shot put and was third in the discus, finishing behind teammate McKenna Eppley who was second.  Max Quintero and Jackson Mucken were fifth and seventh in the javelin and Santos Torres was fifth in the Triple Jump.