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2009 FEAST Flight Score Meet

September 25, Brooks City base, San Antonio

A special thanks to Neal Baumgartner for this great report!
(Photos from the meet will be posted later this evening!)

Conditions 81 F, 56% RH, sunny, E wind 7 mph
Course at Brooks City-Base; grass, moderate grades, obstacles
Distance hand wheeled 3200 meters for all races

The 2008 edition of the FEAST Home School’s “Flight Score” Meet closed with a post-meet buzz of runners, coaches and fans sharing stories about course obstacles, “down to the last flight” competitions, and “let’s do this again next year.”  Well, “next year” came on Friday night with renewed excitement as The Woodlands Girls (Texas #1, SO #1, US #6) and Cedar Park Boys (Texas #1, SO #1, and US #1) joined 45 other schools across two divisions in San Antonio for their own shot at this one-of-a-kind meet with its international style course and non-traditional racing format.  Foregoing the standard mass start, this meet spreads a team’s runners across “flights” where single numbered runners from each team compete head-to-head with the same numbered runners from the other teams i.e., all of the number seven runners from each team start at the same time in one “flight,” then all the number six runners and on up to the number ones.  Flights departed every five minutes so coaches were busy with simultaneous action of multiple races on the course at once.  Tension built with each successive flight, as the red-shirted FEAST cadre posted fluid “during the action” scores race-by-race showing the ebb and flow of competition, lead changes, and what was needed to win and place!

Varsity Girls Flight Races - After nearly a week of rain the skies parted and sunshine filled the course for the evening’s premier A division races.  The reality of the flight format kicked in as the first flight of twenty-three girls, each sporting bib number “7,” toed the line, realizing they alone represented their team for this race within a race.  Moments later Flights Six and Five were underway and the scoreboard was active.  The Woodlands-1 team set the tone early winning Flights Seven and Six by 20 second margins.  Flight Five however was a duel between The Woodlands’ Shelby Hayes and FEAST Home School’s Alanna Almirudis with Hayes on top by only two seconds.  Margo Lyons, The Woodlands, ran the first sub 12 time of the evening in Flight Four winning in 11:52.  In one of the best competitions of the day The Woodlands Samantha Thompson prevailed over the dogged pursuit of FEAST’s Hannah Bowden 12:11 to 12:14.  Flight Two had the same time differential but different outcome as FEAST’s Janessa Dunn (11:43) broke The Woodlands string with a win over Colleen Murray (11:46).  Sarah Andrews, The Woodlands, capped the girls’ races with the only sub 11 girls time with a 10:51 on the challenging 3200 meter course.  Emily Dunn (11:40) claimed second over Clear Lake’s Brittney Wade (11:56).  The Woodlands dominated, winning every flight sans one to achieve a near perfect flight score total of eight.  FEAST Home School garnered three seconds and one first to earn second (32).  Clear Lake-2 Girls (SO #6) claimed third (40) in a tiebreak over The Woodlands-2 team (40) with Del Rio fifth (44) led by Vanessa Cardenas’s second in Flight 4.

Varsity Boys Flight Races - The drama of flight racing peaked when 18 boys’ teams engaged in swift combat on the same 3200m battlefield.  Top ranked Cedar Park brought numbers two through six of their top squad and Bubble Teams Georgetown and Del Rio joined host FEAST Home School (SO#8) over the downed tree, hay bales, dirt mounds, and cavalettis.  Georgetown took an early lead after two flights with a first and second for a running score of 3, followed by Cedar Park 5, Del Rio 8, and FEAST 8.  The order changed at this point as Cedar Park flexed its muscle with Weston O’Donnel (10:10), Cameron Shoppach (10:03), and Bobby McIllece (10:04) winning their flights to put Cedar Park in the lead with 8 over Georgetown’s 11.  Flight Two was a “to-the-line” race with the top three boys separated by less than two seconds, Cedar Park’s Austin Geerts winning in 9:51.0 over Georgetown’s Brady Hand (9:52.0) and hard charging Daniel Vertiz of SA Reagan (9:52.8).  As in the past the flight format coupled with the tight counter current course layout again brought a higher level of energy for cross country coaches and fans.  The crowds cheered back and forth as three races within a race unfolded before them.  Then, just a brief moment after Jay McIllece finished the evening with a 9:47 win in Flight One, all gathered around the rapid scoring big board for the final tally.  After last year’s one point win, Cedar Park claimed their second championship with a low 10 point total, Georgetown ran very well for second (15), FEAST Home School-1 claimed third with 29, and Del Rio (34) edged SA Reagan (35).

Summary - The Woodlands girls and Cedar Park boys clearly showed they are worthy of their high rankings and Sarah Andrews established a lofty course record.  In addition the runners, coaches and fans thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  Flight Three winner Samantha Thompson said the course was somewhat similar to the Nike Nationals course with the obstacles, but had a unique flavor of its own - she quite glad they came; the Cedar Park boys exclaimed, “Lot of fun, we’re back next year for sure.”  Finally, one coach stated, “the best meet and course I’ve seen in 30 yrs of XC, and your red shirt parents are great!”

GIRLS FLIGHTS

BOYS FLIGHTS