Bloomingdale Yearbook

       The season was coming to an end and it was time for the district championship race for the cross country team. The season started out looking promising for the team, but halfway through the season they lost two juniors who helped gain many points each and every race. Unfortunately, Paul Pandl, junior captain, was also unable to attend the districts race because he had been sick the previous three weeks.

      “I was really disappointed that I had to miss the race because all year I had been planning on reaching the regional race and possibly states, but that kind of fell through the ceiling once I got sick,” said junior Paul Pandl.

        The race went well seeing that there were no upperclassmen running for Bloomingdale and it was most of the runners’ first district race. Two of the top three runners were freshmen so the next few years to come look hopeful for Coach Beach.

This past Tuesday, October 13th, the cross country teams ran in their sixth meet of year. The boys team was able to take home fifth place out of over 80 runners total. The girls however, captured the first place trophy. Both the varsity and junior varsity girls came in first place.

The top runner for the girls was co-captain Janna Edwards. She was able to finish in first place, followed closely by captain Gretchen Kauffman. Overall the girls had seven runners place within the top 13. The junior varsity stole the show completely, sweeping the top six places.

“It was the girls’s first first place finish of the season,” Said Coach Jennifer Beach. “It was earned by long, hard hours at practice.”

The boys team came in fifth place at the Invitational. Their top runner was captain Paul Pandl, who finished in fifth place. Freshman Ian Ludden was the top freshman, in ninth place.

“I think we could have done better,” Said freshman Kelvin Alexander, who placed 30th. “We weren’t stretching out our strides enough.”

      The cross country season began with its first meet at Newsome High School. The race was an East Hillsborough Invite and included nine schools, including Bloomingdale. The already treacherous course had been flooded with rain the night before so muddy puddles were numerous.

      Before the race, in order to encourage the runners, trainer Coach Littleton told the team, “Today’s race isn’t about the times, it’s about race tactics and running smart.”

      The girls team had an impressive start to the year and were the runners up behind Newsome. After the race, the top seven Bloomingdale runners were announced as the varsity team for next week’s race. The top seven were: Lizzy Hinckley, Gretchen Kauffman, Lisa Kauffman, Sarah Waller, Eliana Klemmer, Janna Edwards, and Hannah Earl.

       The boys were not quite as successful, but for only having two upperclassmen in the top seven, fourth place was more than acceptable to Coach Beach. The boys varsity for the next meet are: Paul Snyder, Kelvin Anderson, Ian Ludden, Drew Double, Jack McGuire, Hunter Douglas, and Cormac McCarthy.

       “I was impressed by the younger runners and their times,” Captain Jack McGuire said after the race.

Boys and girls cross-country teams started practice last week. They were outside each day after school, running and training, despite the summer heat. At practice, they ran about five miles, then did conditioning. Conditioning included an array of exercises such as crunches, wall-sits, and strides.

“Mrs. Beach is a really good coach, but conditioning is very tough,” freshman runner Julie Roggeman said.

Both the boys and girls varsity teams include the top seven runners from that gender. The rest of the runners make up the junior varsity squad. Their first competition is the East Hills Invite  Tuesday, September 15, at 6:00 at Newsome High School. The Junior Varsity and Varsity teams will be competing then.  They are required to run 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) at the meet.

Coach Jennifer Beach, who ran track for Bloomingdale when she was a student, said, “We are very young but also talented. I think we have a fair chance of being very competitive this season.”