O’McDonald had a kick
November 4, 2006Congratulations to Max O’Donoghue-McDonald of Seattle Preparatory School, who won his second consecutive Washington state 3A high school cross country title today with a 5K time of 15:32, the fastest of anyone in any division. This comes two weeks after he broke the 16-year-old Lower Woodland Park course record at the Metro league championships with his 15:22.
Some might attribute Max’s success to genetics, hard training, etc. Personally, I think Liz deserves most of the credit, since she coached Max back when he was a gawky middle schooler. As I recall, one of her main motivational strategies was to buy Slurpees for athletes whenever they improved their times. In Max’s case, the calories-for-seconds deal may have worked a bit too well; he’s now 6’3″ and still getting faster. If he’s continuing to receive free Slurpees, perhaps it’s time to cut him off.
Max won his state race by 31 seconds even though, according to the coverage in the Seattle P-I, his lead was only 20 seconds as he was “nearing the three-mile mark.” I doubt that he really picked up an additional 11 seconds over the final 200-plus meters, but if he did, he’s one heck of a closer.
My Track Record 
Congratulations, Liz. It must feel good.
Do you know a Hassan Mead? This year he moved to Minnesota from Washington. He just won our state meet in 15:10. I think I read he was 6th in WA last year.