Tyler White is a senior at Orono High School, he finished 14th in the Class C State meet last fall. White is the 5th fastest returner in 2012, he is coming off a string outdoor season that saw him finish 4th in the outdoor 3200m 10:06.21. Follow Tyler in his journey this fall on the trails.
After the Ellsworth Invite, we had the Bucksport Invitational. The Bucksport meet is a fun one because the course is pretty neat and the competition is small Eastern Maine Class C schools, a different atmosphere than that of say the Ellsworth meet. We had the team goal of trying to keep our pack together and shave some seconds off of our 1-5 split. Our number two runner took the pace out and a group of about 6-7 followed. We went through the mile in a perfectly planned 6:10, and then Sam Stahnke and I started to pull away for about a 5 second lead at the 2mile. I didn't get my goal of beating Alex Bulteels time but I closed in about 5:07 to beat Sam by 10 seconds so I will be looking forward to seeing him at championship meets. The best part of the meet was definitely how the rest of the guys ran. We had two under 18, and 4 under 19. Its hard not to be psyched about that. At Ellsworth our 1-5 split was 3:11 seconds (1-6 was 4:16) at Bucksport our 1-5 was 1:33, better yet our 1-6 was 1:56. That cut both splits in half! I think that was better than what anyone was expecting so we were pretty excited.
The next meet was on Tuesday, the Lee Invitational. This was going to be an important meet because Class C rival Bangor Christian was going to be there, and it is a small meet so it is practically head to head. Our coach told us that we were just going to focus on hitting our splits tempo style, and whatever happens happens. Once again our two runner took out the pace because of his mastery last meet, and sure enough we go through the mile in a perfect 6:00. A lead pack took the race out hard and I was sitting in about 7th place with 1.5 to go, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. There is a massive gravel pit at about 1 1/4 to go, and the terrain consisted of many large rocks.(Not a very good day to choose spikes) I passed a Sumner, Lee, and BC runner before the massive and long uphill and tried to run it hard while staying relaxed and conserving for a strong final 800. It was a pretty interesting hill because once at the top you could peek down to your left and see other runners at the bottom, it was a pretty unique experience. Then you literally had to hurdle a dirt pile to enter the woods. I passed the number two runner from BC and there were only two more people to catch. I caught up to Josh Wheeler and Dylan Merchant and took the lead approaching the 2mile. We went through in about 11:40, splitting a comfortable 5:43. At the 2mile sign there is exactly a half mile to go, so I started to loosen my legs up and ease into a hard run. I finished in 14:01, which was a decent time considering the first mile was about six minutes. The last 800 ended up being about a 2:21, so I was pretty pleased with that closing effort. The rest of the team ran a solid pack race for the second meet in a row, and it certainly worked to our advantage. Our 1-5 was 1:26, lowering it even more. I had a feeling that we may have gotten first, but we weren't sure so the award ceremony couldn't come soon enough. We ended up just edging Bangor Christian by one point, and I believe it was the first time in three years we have beaten their whole squad. Bangor Christian is a very talented team, and all of the guys on the team are nice so we are looking forward to battling them all season long.
The final meet, to conclude the 3-in-6 day series was our home meet. It is a relatively small meet, but MDI, Old Town and Hermon come so there is some presence. The boys were racing first, and the heat was going to be a pretty significant factor. The start of the race is at the base of a massive grass hill. I think other athletes and coaches could attest to our 2.76 course being one of the most uphill/difficult courses in the state. The pace was taken out pretty hard, and we went through the mile five seconds slower than the leader still flying through at 5:49 which was too fast considering the difficulty of the next mile, and the sun that was beating down that whole first mile. My goal going in was to definitely beat Alex's course record of 15:50. The time doesn't sound fast for 2.76 miles, but for our course that is pretty quick. I ended up coming in at a disappointing 15:53 just shy of the record. I wasn't very pleased with my effort but after comparing the results to last year, we had eight runners under where our fifth runner was last year at the same meet. That was a pretty exciting statistic. I also ran about two minutes faster than last year, so that was a positive result.
Our boys and I (also Lily Koffman) won three meets in a row, and we were definitely rewarded with a very low key weekend to let our bodies come back. We are looking to hopefully make it four in a row at the Old Town Sectional Invite, but we will see who shows up to the meet for competition. There should be a lot of good teams and it will definitely be a fun race. My favorite part of meets is the socializing that goes on beforehand with members of other teams, because unlike most other sports running seems to bring everyone together and there isn't any trash talking or dirty players on other teams. There are some blazing fast times out there on the girls and boys side of things throughout the state, so it will be neat to see how they all stack up face to face on the same course in the same conditions, and that has to be my favorite aspect of Festival of Champions. With under 40 days until states, I hope everyone is staying healthy and training hard and smart. I will see you all at Festival, so good luck until then!
-Tyler