Camp Trip To Scout Lake Sets Up The Season For Summit

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

On the final morning of Summit High's team camp at Scout Lake, there is a team photo followed by a relay race. 

Nearly 60 boys and girls, about two-thirds of the total that will be out when formal practice begins, have come 45 miles from Bend, Ore. for three days of running, sleeping bags, S'mores, team bonding, and more running, on the leeward side of the Cascade Montains in a campground adorned with Ponderosa pines.

Wednesday morning brings the three-man relay at the edge of the small lake, something that has become a tradition. The first leg is an 80-yard swim across the lake, running shoes and all. The second leg is a 300-meter sprint around the shore of the lake, back to the start of the swim. The teams, all 18 of them, chosen a random, go hard at it for 30 minutes -- until everyone has made about eight circuits.

Sprinkled throughout the exercise are the members of the 2018 Nike Cross Nationals championship girls team, ranked US#1 heading into the fall. 

The tall, white-bearded coach with the Scottish accent, Jim McLatchie, has kept a watchful eye on the proceedings. 

"A lot of sleepers," he says. "Just looking at them. I don't know their names."

The camp's freshmen are in in the midst of being assimiliated into the group. Some day, McLatchie will learn some of their names. 

It's Carol McLatchie, with the rainbow-colored hair, that has names to worry about. She's the head cross country coach at Summit, a former Master's champion, and one of the most respected officials in USA Track and Field. She has recently returned from 21 days in Peru, where she served as coach of the women's distance athletes at the Pan American Games. 

Jim is the guru, the oracle. He grew up in a Scottish coal-mining village, idolized Roger Bannister, and somehow managed to run his way to an American scholarship in 1963 -- landing at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. (That same year, he beat Jim Ryun in a mile race held in the sweltering heat of Houston). 

Long story short, when the McLatchies came to Bend in the early 2000s, it was to retire. 

Instead, the restless coaches latched on at Summit in 2009 and have boosted the program to national prominence. 

In Bend, the conditions are just right to support an elite cross country team. Trails. Hills. A bit of altitude (3,500 feet). A city that throbs with outdoors activity and healthy living. It's also a place where belief is not hard to come by. This is the hometown of former decathlon world record holder and two-time Olympic champion Ashton Eaton. 

Summit High, with its Mondo track and decade's worth of state titles, cares about the sport. The McLatchies are supported by a half dozen assistants and voluneers.

When the Summit girls entered the 2018 season ranked No. 7 they came to their coaches and wondered why they weren't getting more respect. 

"Well, you haven't done anything at nationals," Carol replied flatly. 

The team vowed to change that, to invest more effort. 

In exchange for a training program that could get Summit to the top of Nike Cross Nationals, Jim said he needed something in return: A commitment to stay home and train during Thanksgiving. 

For the first time, the runners and their families stayed home to focus on the mission. 

Less than a week out from the trip to Portland for nationals, the coaches viewed it as a crucial time to stay together, and focused. 

It worked. Led by junior Fiona Max, the Oregon 6A champion, and her twin sister, Izzy, and Jesuit transfer Kelsey Gripekoven, and tall freshman Teaghan Knox, and vastly improved junior Azza Borovicka Swanson, and solid support from Stella Skovborg and Jasper Fievet -- Summit breezed through the Oregon season, won the the state title over Jesuit with ease, and scored 54 points to win the NXR Northwest title. 

Then, nine days after Thanksgiving, Summit became the first team west of Minnesota to win the NXN title -- by 66 points. 

As the new season begins, and all seven are set to return, Summit enters the season committed to trying to do it again. 

"Even though we have the same seven back, some of them might not make it," Jim McLatchie says. "I think it's good for the program."

There is quality depth readily apparent that extends beyond seven.   

"Even though there's the top seven girls with a focus on nationals, what we're trying to focus on is being a mile deep and recognizing the depth of the team," Fiona Max said. "We just had a hour and a half discussion about how we want to blur the the lines between varsity and J.V. more. We definitely know that things may shift as people go through ups and downs. It's an exciting idea because it's healthy intrasquad competition."

While the rest of country grinds through the season, Summit will be doing its own thing. A national championship did nothing to affect the coming schedule. The team will stay put in Oregon, competing in the same meets as usual, until NXR Northwest on Nov. 16 at Eagle Island Park in Idaho. 

In the meantime, Summit will savor the process and proudly wear the US#1 ranking. 

"We're putting our hearts into this," Borovicka Swanson said. "No one's slacking off. I think with this combined effort, this team has something amazing we can accomplishish as a family, and together, and not just indivdiually."

This week, it was all about kicking things off with the annual team camping trip to the Ponderosa Pines, the whistling wind, and Scout Lake. 

It was 72 hours to get things started on the right foot. 

"It goes from helping pull each other up Cache Mountain, like literally grabbing people by the hand and pulling them up, to the late-night rap songs we make, the late-night talks, weird stories, stars and aliens, waking up with greasy hair and dirty feet and scratches all over our bodies," Borovicka Swanson said. "The more pain we're in, together, the closer we get and the stronger we get. It's a really good thing that Summit has. We got a thick skin on us."