SEASIDE – The Three-Course Challenge held at Camp Rilea Sept. 22 and hosted by Seaside High School was a splashing success as Ilwaco athletes “enjoyed the mud pit, the good weather and the fun atmosphere, and everyone ran well,” according to coach Sarah Taylor.

With nearly 100 schools in attendance and 971 girl runners and 1,288 boy competitors the military camp featured every team color in the rainbow. Competitors drew chips at random to see which course they would run on. Stephen Berglund, Owen Sutherland and Anna Gerke drew red chips, pitting them against the difficult course of 3.85 miles. Evin LaPlatney, Kelly Freese and Cameo Ulbricht were assigned the moderate course of 3.7 miles and Kenzi Wirkkala, Annika Wolters, Michel Mortenson and Jason Huntley drew the 3.1 mile easy course.

The difficult course had mud, a water pit, and a huge sand hill to climb at the finish. The “difficult” course saw competitors go into the water pit dry and often come out very wet and caked with mud, as Gerke experienced. The easy course resembled a standard cross country trek as it was an “easy loop around the area on roads and trails.”

When the mud began to dry the top 10 finishers in each race – each division according to school size – were given awards. Freese and Berglund were both seventh and Ulbricht received an award for tenth place. Next year Seaside officials are hoping to top the 100 mark in number of teams enjoying the challenge.