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Monta Vista Cross Country made it’s first ever trip out of state, to the Nike Portland XC Invitational, on September 26.  This trip was fantastic!

The race is on the course used by Nike NXN for the last several years.  Run entirely on grass, the course is laid out inside the Portland Meadows horse racing track (early morning, you can hear horses making noise on the East side of the track!).  The course is flat and pretty fast 5km and was a very interesting challenge.

We did not know exactly what we would be getting into, and it turned out that there was some wicked fast racing!  Yet Monta Vista held it’s own, bringing home eight individual medals (Brent Mogensen, Bennett Zhang, Kelly Bishop, Claire Chang, Sarah Feng, Akshara Majjiga, Andy Fang and Ryan Niu) as well as a team plaque (5th place by the Varsity boys!).

This was a great weekend.  Your coaches are proud to travel with you and roll you out against the best, anywhere!

Photos are available for viewing (and downloading for your posting pleasure) on the team photo site, and complete results are available on XCStats.

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Ready for race day after running the course on Friday.

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Nong’s food truck came out to deliver wonderful pre-race dinner in Delta Park

after our shake out run.

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Coach did not want to miss out on the fun and he entered the Citizens’ Race before the high school meet started.

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Bennett Zhang flying around Portland Meadows.

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Brent Mogensen finishing off a second place finish.

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Varsity Boys showing off the hardware!

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Varsity girls sharing a laugh and looking relaxed before the start.

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Isabelle Ju and Salma Sheriff negotiating the whirligigs.

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Sarah Feng flying over the rise.

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Claire Chang closing in on a medal in the JV Championships race.

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Akshara Majjiga chasing her own medal.

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Andy Fang heading to his runner-up finish (narrowly edged out for first!) in the Frosh race.

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Exploring the Pearl District of Portland after the racing.

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Coach says that ice cream is recovery food!  Taking over Cool Moon Ice Cream shop.

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Waiting for the sun to come up over Mt. Hood!

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There it is!

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The Dawn Patrol!

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Meanwhile, back on the East Coast…former teammates on Monta Vista’s first CCS Championship team were racing against each other at the Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams College.  Left–Jenny Xu MV2015 (MIT); Right–Sunny Shan MV2014 (Mt. Holyoke College).