Patient Brennand places sixth

HIGH SCHOOLS: Olympia runner sticks to his plan, earns top-10 finish at Fort Steilacoom cross country invite

GAIL WOOD; The Olympian | • Published September 20, 2009

Comments (0)

STEILACOOM – A week ago, Olympia High cross country runner Nate Brennand paid the price for going out too fast with a sluggish finish.

This time, not getting sucked in by a fast tempo set by the state’s top runner, Brennand passed a couple of runners near the finish and placed sixth Saturday at the Fort Steilacoom Invitational, which drew 50 schools and about 1,600 runners to the Fort Steilacoom Park course.

“I made it my goal not to break five minutes on my first mile,” Brennand said. “I had a bad experience last week when I went out too fast. I didn’t want to do that again.”

There was no catching Central Kitsap’s Shane Moskowitz, the top runner in the state and ranked 12th nationally. Moskowitz pulled away from a pack of three runners a mile into the 3.2-mile race to win in 15 minutes, 9 seconds, breaking the meet record by six seconds.

Moskowitz, who committed to Oklahoma State last week, knew what the meet record was going into the race. He won by 32 seconds and was never threatened.

“The first mile was too slow a pace,” Moskowitz said. “That’s when I picked it up.”

No one went with Moskowitz. He ran the first mile in 4:51 and kept a 4:53 pace for the race. Moskowitz wasn’t just racing the field. He was racing the clock.

“Across the country, I know that some guys have already run 15:02s,” Moskowitz said. “I knew I had to go faster today. It felt good.”

Moskowsitz broke the meet record of 15:15 set by Puyallup’s Rob Webster in 2007.

Brennand, who placed 11th in the meet last year, ran his first mile in 5:05 and kept a 5:12 mile pace for the race.

“I felt better at the end today,” Brennand said. “I was able to pick it up at the end.”

Northwest Christian’s Justin Holden placed ninth, finishing in 16:14, four seconds ahead of Chehalis’ Dakota Parker. Holden, who has been working on strarting faster, kept a 5:14-per-mile pace.

“Justin went out faster,” Northwest Christian coach Bill Kehoe said. “He ran with a good pack, and they carried him. He stuck with them. He stayed strong.”

While Brennand kept his head, Yelm’s Ashley Taylor didn’t keep her feet. About 100 yards into the race, someone stepped on Taylor’s heel, and she fell, breaking her focus and her pace.

Taylor got to her feet and finished what she called a disappointing 17th. Halfway through the race, she was about 35th.

“I was tripped,” Taylor said. “After I fell, I was trying to get back into the race. ... I wanted to run in the low 19s.”

Instead, Taylor, who has overcome a stress fracture in her shin that slowed her in track, finished in 20:11. Yelm coach Mike Strong said Taylor’s fall knocked her out of the race mentally, and she stopped competing.

“She’s not a victim,” Strong said. “Stuff happens. Don’t dwell on it. Get back into the race.”

North Thurston’s Cortney Thomas ran a strong race and finished eighth with a time of 19:42. Elizabeth Weber, a sophomore at Northwest Christian who placed 29th last year, took 13th in 19:58.

Bonney Lake’s Veronica Stinnett led from start to finish and won the girls race in 19:03.

“Elizabeth ran with confidence,” Kehoe said. “Sometimes we forget she’s only a sophomore. She ran a strong race.”

gwood@theolympian.com