The Valley Christian runners clashed with humid weather and an uphill course during the Equinox invite. A different environment from the elevated slightly chilly flagstaff course from the week prior. This week the goal was to maintain consistency and fluency from last weeks race and some PR'd.
 
The girl's varsity, or more specifically the girls championship team raced in the early morning getting the course at its best. Both Ellie Edwards (Sr.) 19:46.8 and Ellie Phillips (Sr.) 20:03.9 did well both having an SR. Mara Mellberg (Jr.) also had an SR with 20:40.2. A PR was awarded to Emmy Philips (Fr.) coming in 57th with a time of 20:53.5, an impressive hustle for sure. Both Madison Lewis (Jr.) 23:00.6 and Teagan White (Jr.) 23:03.3 finished together after the muddy race.
 
The boy's championship team ran staggering times running in high ranked positions. The hills seemed to be a struggle for all teams today. However, the hills were where positions were won and lost. Micah Newkirk (Sr.) held a solid spot throughout but in the final downhill he was in a 1v1 fight to the finish. He received a time of 15:56.9 completing the course in 5th. Cody Sigerud (Sr.) fought with Basha for most of the race finding momentum in the flat straights. He finished 2 minutes faster than the last meet running 17:05.2. Micah Heller (Jr.) also had a competitive day finishing with strong strides in front of Skyline. He finished with 18:49.8. Skyler White (Fr.) a highly anticipated upcoming lower classman ran 19:10.0 running about 3 minutes faster than the week prior. Luke Hodgson ran 18:29.5, this race being his first for the season. Not far behind, Micah Guelich (Jr.) fought hard setting a SR with 22:11.7. Noah Klein another successful lower classman ran a time of 21:54.1.
 
For the girls JV Claire Heller (Fr.)  ran superbly, finishing 23rd with ALA on her tail, she received a time of 26:07.9. Julianne Hall (Fr.) also ran an aggressive race being compact in the hills pushing through to the finish. She finished with a time of 31:28.5. Shea Totra entered her first race today with 38:03.0.

The boys JV fought well proving their right to be there. Micah Raber (Jr.) dawning his pink shoes fought with Sentinel consistently to the end. He finished 22:16.5. Seth Gentala (Jr.) ran a solid 23:17.7 running faster than the Flagstaff meet. He ran tight with Basha edging forward at times. Connor Burrus (So.) and Aiden Brackman (Fr.) ran together for most of the race. Aiden finished slightly slower with 25:57.5 and Connor finishing 25:56.8.
 
Overall, this gave our runners a new course to compete at and continue to strive for excellence.