Portland Metro League District Meet

A record setting temperature set the stage at the Metro League District meet on Friday. It was 101 degrees at the start of the boys 1500 meter run at 5pm. The first lap started out with a strong lead by Southridge senior Michael Brown, and Jesuit seniors Brian Manning and Peter Maag. The rest of the runners followed close behind. It would be a close race; Brown had surprised the Jesuit runners by beating both of them on the 1500 and 800 two weeks before at Jesuit.

The tight pack of three still looked strong by the second lap; now Sunset junior Ryan Kavanaugh and Jesuit senior Lucas Rothenberger were making their moves, while the other runners looked more spread out. It was clear no one was going to let the heat get the best of him, however.

By the third lap Rothenberger had overtaken Kavanaugh and was catching up to his teammates, who were now just ahead of Brown. It seemed for nearly a lap that Brown might lose his top spot, until just on the back stretch of the fourth lap he passed Manning and Maag. Neither boy was about to give up with a fight but Brown emerged victorious; he finished just 32 seconds ahead of Manning at 4:04:06, with Maag coming in third at 4:07:40. Although the boys had slower times than the previous couple weeks because of the heat, it was clear they could still fight til the finish.