Forest Grove runners perform well at New Balance Invite

Forest Grove’s cross country teams were in mid-season form last Saturday, running to a pair of Top 10 finishes at the New Balance Festival of Champions.

The Forest Grove boys finished seventh in the large school division, netting 124 points under the meet’s convoluted scoring system. The Lady Vikings finished ninth among large schools, picking up 195 points.

Josh Johnson gave the Viking boys a huge boost by winning Flight 1 — the event was broken into four different races with each team’s No. 1 and 2 runners in Flight 5, No. 3 and 4 in Flight 4, No. 5 and 6 in Flight 3 and No. 7-12 in Flight 1.

Johnson won the Flight 1 race with a lifetime best of 17:12.7 and teammate Tyler Shipley finished 11th in 18:08.6. That gave the Vikings a big point boost from the bottom of their lineup and the veterans did the rest. Forest Grove got four Top 25 performances from their top six runners, including a 14th-place finish in Flight 5 by Nick Robbins (16:48.6) and an 11th-place finish by James Myers (17:17.5) in Flight 4.

Forest Grove’s girls got their best finishes from their top two runners. Eredi Pintor finished ninth (20:14.7) in Flight 5 and Laura Matzke was 18th (20:35.8). Tiffany Blackmun also impressed with a lifetime best of 22:22.2, good for 18th in Flight 3.

Sources: Zack Palmer The Forest Grove News-Times, Sep 23, 2009, Updated Sep 23, 2009