Saturday will be a huge day for those four young West Seattleites! The photo and report are from Eric Linxweiler:
West Seattle has a new running program for youth started this past fall. After running cross country with Seattle Parks and Rec for the past few years, we decided this year to make a USA Track and Field youth club called West Seattle Road Runners. We started training in August, and in September moved to Lincoln Park for our 2-day-a-week running sessions. The kids ran over every square inch of that park!
This year, especially, all of the regional running teams are amazed at how fast we’ve grown, how our team supports each other, and yes – how fast our kids are (especially our 7&8 year old girls, who placed second in the Pacific Northwest).
All told, we’ve grown from 12 runners in 2014 to 48 this year, ranging in age from 5 to 14. It’s been fantastic to see them all grow and develop, all with the support of a vibrant West Seattle running community (including West Seattle Runner).
Through the season we had many teams qualify for Junior Olympic races and qualified a handful for Nationals. In the picture (above), we have Cailin Ross, Macy Powell, and Lincoln Sitzmann (front) and William Frederick (back). They will be representing West Seattle at the USATF Junior Olympics (Saturday) in Tallahassee, Florida.
Coaches were Brandee Paisano, James Powell, Ashlee Lymann, Derek Bair, and myself.
Eric (who reminds us he had local runners at the Junior Olympics in 2015, too) promises to let us know how it goes!
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