On January 13, Arlington’s distance team traveled to Spokane, to compete against some of the top athletes from Washington and Oregon. This was the season opener for all of Arlingtons distance crew and will give the whole team an idea on what fitness level they are.

First racer of the day had the most pressure on senior Jaiden Cochran, as she was racing alone and most of the team would be watching the race. Cochran knew she had to set a good bar of the day” I went out very conservative and trusted the training from the past month, so I started to move up every lap and eventually took the lead with no look back and pushed it till the very end” Cochran said.

The youngest athlete that traveled to Spokane said “I was trying to learn my fitness level and take the nerve off racing faster people to learn how to race,” Noah Bumgardener said. As he was put into a heat below the fastest race, minutes before lining up was told to switch into the men’s elite, changing his whole race plan.

With the other sophomore being left out of the men’s elite. His plan on sticking with Bumgardener had to change, and he would have to learn how to race alone.” I just raced in the back of the pack and didn’t try to do anything crazy, I watched the other races before me and people were going out too hard and couldn’t control the pace after that so I had to watch my pace” Lucas Spurling said.