Catholic School Invitational

Last Saturday was the Catholic School Invitational, the last cross country race of the season and Elizabeth's final middle school cross country race.  We love this race because it's the only time all year that our kids have the chance to race against kids like them - from small schools that only have practice two days per week.  Both of our teams were incredibly successful - the boys finished 2nd out of 8 teams, for the second year in a row and the girls finished 3rd out of 8 teams, stunning all us.  Each team had four runners in the top 20.  Elizabeth led the way for the girls, finishing 11th overall and first for JPII, setting a new school record and beating her sister for the first time all season - what a way to finish your middle school running career!
Overall, Elizabeth and Emily had a great season.  Each of them set a school record; Emily set a 6th grade school record in every race that she ran; Elizabeth set an 8th grade record in 3 out of 4 races.  We really could ask for much more from our girls!

JPII Girls  

Elizabeth and Mom selfie before the race. 

Love them so much. 

About 200 yards into the race. 

Emily hung with the top five for a while, but she just couldn't hang on.  Elizabeth just started picking off runners and passed Emily right before the mile marker, never looking back.

Sprinting to the finish. 

Proud 8th grader with mom and dad. 

These two ran their best race of the year! 

Getting her medal. 

JPII Cross Country Team and Coaches. 

The medalists.  Emily had to leave the moment the girls race finished for a quarter final soccer game and so isn't pictured here.