Payton Is Going To State!

The Cross Country season has officially come to a close. It seems like it had just begun.

This past Saturday my daughter Payton and her team ran Regionals, the official last meet of the season.
The team won Regionals and Payton ran one of her best/smartest races all season. The course was horrible as it had been raining quite a bit and there were 4 other races that morning before her race. This course was by far the worst conditions she had ran in causing her to have one of her worst times of the entire season, in fact..... her worst.

By the time her race was set to go the course was very muddy and much of the course was a mud pit. During the entire race the girls were slipping and sliding and some were even losing their shoes while others were falling. Payton ran a very smart race and finished 11th overall with a medal to show for it. She also finished 6th for her team, the first time she had finished in 6th place all season. The times were way off, the first place finisher finished in 21:10 and Payton finished in 22:43 - her worst time all season by almost a full minute.

Payton had been finishing 7th most of the last meets and is officially ranked #7 on her team of about 95. Early in the season she started ranked #9 and moved to #8, and the second part of the season moved to #7.

Being ranked in the top 7 of the team is a big deal - especially for a Freshman! There is one other Freshman in the top 7, running in the #5 slot. Payton has had a lot of opportunities over the season running in the top 10, one of the coolest being her trip to Richmond VA/Washington DC to run in the U.S. Army X-Country Festival at Maymont but the coolest is coming this Saturday.

This Saturday is State! Payton, and the rest of the top 7 on her team have earned a spot in the AAAAA State Championship to be run in Carrollton, GA. How cool is that as a Freshman??!! We are all really excited for her and very proud of her. One of the really cool things is Carrollton is where she holds her PR of 20:59. I am sure she will blow that away this Saturday!

Wish her and her team luck!

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow - virtual4now

6 comments:

  1. That is awesome. You put be proud. Good luck Payton and Team!!!

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  2. that's awesome, you should be very proud....go Payton!

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  3. What great photos. Show's how truly awful conditions were. Great run Payton! Good Luck for States.

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  4. very cool, she is becoming quite the accomplished runner already!

    good luck to her and the team at state!!

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  5. Wow! How good is her team that's she's the 11th runner overall in the regional meet and finished 6th on the team?

    After winning two JV meets in a row, my daughter just cracked varsity as a 7th grader, but her team isn't as good. She PRed with a 23:12 at the district meet today.

    Those are great pics too, by the way. I'm sure the runners didn't enjoy the conditions during the race, but those are the rare pics that prove we runners are actually pretty tough.

    Best of luck to your daughter at the state meet!

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  6. What great photos. Show's how truly awful conditions were. Great run Payton! Good Luck for States.

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