As has happened over the past 25-years on the first weekend on October, Valley Royal secondary school runners pack their bags and head to Yakima, Washington to take part in the prestigious Sunfair meet. With more than 2,500 athletes entered the Sunfair is the largest meet of its type in the Pacific Northwest.
Valley Royal runners had a number of good performances and enjoyed the opportunity to compete in a meet of the size and quality provided them in Yakima. Filomena Loefell, the Valley Royals exchange student on loan to us from Germany, was third in the sophomore girls’ 3-mile run (21:20) with teammate Jensen Bako finishing eighth (21:56).
Erica Johnson, who always seems to perform well at the Sunfair, came fourth in flight 2 of the varsity races (20:26). In flight 3 Delaney Chapman fought off a case of nerves and ran a strong second half of the race to finish ninth (20:48). Callum Pilgrim was 27th in flight four while Kate Sokolowski placed seventh (20:55) in flight 5. Caitlin Leblanc rounded out the female performances by placing 19th in the always strong flight 6 (20:49) of this meet.
On the male side, Tanner Geary placed 30th in the Varsity flight 5 (18:02). Geary probably was a little too aggressive over the first half of his three mile run that is contested on a very hilly course. Geary paid the price in the latter part of his run but it was a lesson that many runners have experienced at this meet. Aidan Bingert, who along with Geary much prefers track races over the 800 meter distance, had a credible performance in recording a time of 17:05 for a 21st place finish in flight 6.