On Saturday, Sept. 30, the Cedarcrest High School cross country squad competed at the Nike Portland meet, held at the Portland Meadows horse racing venue. Racers run on the grass infield of the racetrack, a new adventure for the team, said coach Bruce McDowell.

It was the first time Cedarcrest has competed at the Nike Portland, he said.

“This meet is a big meet, almost 150 teams, six states and a Canadian province represented, and over 5,000 runners.”

“We challenged our varsity squads today by running them ‘up a division,’” McDowell said. Varsity ran in Division 1 instead of Division 2.

The girls team finished 18th of 30 teams, and the top Cedarcrest varsity girl was Elsie Dombek, taking 20th.

“Merging the results informally that put her about 70th place out of about 1,400 runners,” McDowell said.

The boys team finished 23rd of 30.

“That was without Grant Van Valkenburg who ran as an individual in the Danner Championship race,” said McDowell. Van Valkenburg finished 30th overall in his race.

Of the 34 Cedarcrest runners competing, 18 had personal bests and four more had season-best times.

Athletes of the meet were Emmett Klaiber, breaking the 17-minute barrier; Riley Humes; Connor Eck; John Meier; Alicia Krivanek and Ellie Hegewald.