How do you spell Far East cross country? A-MAY-zing
Published: October 31, 2011
Shirt-tailing onto the expert analysis by Bruce Carrick, just saying, that girls 3.1-mile individual race Monday in the Far East High School Cross-Country Meet is going to be amazing.
A-MAY-zing.
Anybody catch that game of “Can You Top This” last week between Alle Robles of Kubasaki and defending Far East champion Amanda Henderson of Seoul American?
En route to capturing their respective district championships, Robles the Okinawa Activities Council and Henderson repeating her Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference title, they each set Pacific bests.
First, Robles ran the windy, flat Bolo Point course in 19 minutes, 52 seconds. Which flabbergasted her, if her reaction was any indicator. “No way! Really? Wow! I don’t know what to say!” said Robles, who clearly had plenty to say, much of it with her fleet feet.
So, what did Henderson do when Falcons coach Steve Boyd told her of Robles’ feat. A shrug of the shoulders, almost as if to say, “Meh. Watch me come Saturday.”
And boy, did Henderson light up that International Christian-Uijongbu course, clocking a sizzling 19:32.
Throw those two into a very strong girls field, featuring Kanto Plain champion Fumi Kurihara, Yokota’s Abigail Wall, Nile C. Kinnick’s Carydaliz Fontanez, Robles’ and Henderson’s teammates plus a very strong Kadena girls contingent and that becomes quite a race.
Blog post interruption: In case you weren’t counting, that was Kubasaki’s first OAC overall meet title in 10 years.
It’s not like the boys race features a bunch of shrinking violets. Just wait until Kinnick’s Robert Beard and Kubasaki’s Erik Armes lock horns. Beard has a belly full of motivation after losing his way on the Citizens Park course in the DODDS Japan finals last week at Misawa.
And Armes has found his way into 16-minute territory. Then, you have Seoul American’s Ryan Parker, E.J. King’s Kento and Kiyoshi Reynolds, Robert D. Edgren’s Alan Thurmond (you think he’s happy he gave up football?), Matthew C. Perry’s twosome of Matt Smith and Yasuki Milsop. Fast runners call for sizzled cross-country courses.
Tama Hills Recreation Center better have a fire crew ready with some ice water to cool that course down on Monday.
