SCA cross country runners have returned from the Three Course Challenge in Seaside, Oregon with medals in hand. This meet, now in its 34th year, is called the “Three Course Challenge,” held at Camp Rilea, a National Guard base in Seaside. Over the years, this meet has hosted over 50,000 runners and over 250 schools. The 2024 Three Course Challenge hosted roughly 1,000 runners. Boden Tapperson clinched a 4th place in a race of 180 middle school boys while Bailey Murrell brought home the 8th place medal in her race against 125 other middle school girls.
In addition to an exemplary showing at the meet, the team was blessed with experiencing the beauty of another part of the country. They flew into Portland on Thursday, then drove 2 hours to Seaside, which is where everyone stayed. The Airbnb was walking distance to the beach so the entire travel group all went to the beach before dinner. Several kids even got in the freezing cold water and swam.
Friday they went to Lewis & Clark National Park where they toured Fort Clatsop and learned about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Never missing an opportunity for some exercise, they also did some hiking along the Lewis & Clark Netul River Trail. In addition, they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to head to Astoria and visit the famous Goonies house. From there the cross country meet host team held a spaghetti dinner for all of the runners and coaches to attend and carb load before the big race. The team found a cool gelato spot to finish off the night with flavors like charcoal, dutch chocolate, lavender blueberry, chocolate raspberry, pumpkin spice, cotton candy, ras-pear-y, cookies & cream and more.
Saturday presented the racers with glorious weather in the 60’s with blue skies. All middle schoolers (5th-8th grade) competed on the same 3,000-meter course, while separated into divisions of boys and girls. Each of the divisions hosted over 150 runners, some holding over 300! High school racers were assigned one of three courses to race. Courses ranged from “easy” (a 4,300-meter course) to “moderate” and “difficult” (both 5,000-meters). Each middle school and high school race was very challenging and included large water/mud obstacles.
Congratulations to all the runners for navigating very challenging terrain!
