The Stan Goodell Legend XC Invitational

 

While this year's team had not competed at a meet at Hidden Valley High School, Coach Nicki Ford had last competed there when she was running at Roseburg HS in 1986; Coach Volk had taken the first St. Mary's XC team that he coached to HVHS in 1987; and Coach Dilan had recently competed there in 2021.

 

This Invitational paid homage to legendary coach Stan Goodell, who has coached 43 Years at Rogue River HS, Brighton Academy, Hidden Valley HS, and Grant's Pass HS during his career and brought back a variation of their OG XC course. The course, with its steep hills and dirt trails, was certainly not conducive to fast times (no PRs or SBs were had), but it gave the Crusader harriers to run a "true" XC course. It also gave them more practice at doing something hard, which they will certainly benefit from as they approach the championship phase of their season in the next few weeks. The tough course did not prevent St. Mary's runners from individual accolades: Marren Tigninni earned a 2nd place medal in the JV girls race, and Bella Fortino continued her podium finish streak (9 straight meets) with her 3rd place finish in the varsity girls race.