Amanda Miller is moving up

She won the Washington 2A meet as a freshman, 3A as a sophomore, and rose in class again this year to 4A, where she finished third. Today, she passed the Oregon runners as well in a convincing victory.

The girls’ race unfortunately never seemed to be in question. Washington seized the first three places from the outset with a pack of four Oregon runners trailing. The followers seemed to be segments of links with one or two Oregon runners sandwiched by packs of three or four runners. Washington’s Amanda Miller, who had been 3rd at State, defeated Jamie Geissler, who had been 4th, with state champion Amber Nickelson right behind. Danielle Jordan had a big break-through to earn 4th after being ‘only’ 9th at state. Meghan Armstrong crossed the line next to earn 5th . Erin Gray, the Oregon State champion, had one of those days that some people like to pretend do not happen but serious runners know will inevitably occur and was off her form. Christy Paul, who had won the 2001 State Championship trailed by a second but the Washington girls were just too strong. The Oregon girls lost to their opponents 91 to 126.

The times for the 4.4 K race are somewhat meaningless but the race is a very worthwhile addition to the running scene. Nike must be complemented for its effort, which even provided viewing screens for the public to follow the progress when runners were out of sight. Even better, however, was their bringing in Bob Kennedy & Suzy Favor-Hamilton to act as Nike ambassadors. The two affable running legends spent time with the crowd chatting & signing autographs.

Following the race the reporter for the local newspaper tried to play up the state rivalry but Galen Rupp would have none of that. He remarked that they cared and tried to do their part to win but noted there are other things of greater importance. Both Rupp and Jesperson noted that the meet is but one stop along the way. There are miles to log and things to do yet in this season. Nike presented the top ten finishers very nice statuettes but that was not the real prize. All one had to do was look at the faces of Galen Rupp & Alec Wall as they received a congratulatory kiss from Suzy. Now that is a special prize indeed! From here it is on to Act 3 and an even greater set of challengers too.