Ronit and Rinieh on another slide @ sesame place

side by side

Tags: wineries, antique shopping, history, peddlers village, pennsylvania, bucks county pa, restaurants, bucks county, doylestown, new hope

Cross-country – Washington’s Gig Harbor Girls Just Miss Another State Title and Chance at History

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
Washington State’s 2008 Prep Cross-Country Championships taught the Gig Harbor High School girls’ team a really disappointing lesson in knowing just how close is not close enough.
After winning 3 consecutive state titles in the 4A state championship competition, Gig Harbor fell 1 point short in the team competition Saturday (11-8-08) at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco, settling for the runner-up spot.
Had they won, the girls would have set the Washington State record with 4 consecutive titles. Only two other 4A teams in state history have won 3 consecutive titles. Bellarmine Prep accomplished the feat in 1977, 1978 and 1979, and Issaquah matched the feat in 1985, 1986 and 1987.
So close and yet so far. Eastlake High School of Sammamish nipped the Tide runners 97 to 96. Eastlake’s runners finished 14th, 15th, 18th, 24th, 25th, 40th and 72nd. Gig Harbor’s runners finished 1st, 16th, 17th, 30th, 33rd, 44th and 48th. Each team has 7 runners but only the first 5 runners finishing figure in the team scoring.
Since Eastlake’s 5th scoring runner was 25th, it did not matter that Gig Harbor’s last two runners finished 44th (sophomore Kelly Williams in 20:05) and 72nd (senior Ashley Horton in 20:42).
Senior Alyssa Andrews of Gig Harbor won the 5000 meter run (3. 1 miles) in 18:00 flat to become the state 4A champion. She could not have done any more for her team. Sophomore Brittany Kealy was 16th and junior Erin Hull was 17th, they both finished in 19:21 and did their job. Sophomore Danie Moon was 30th in 19:47 and senior Claire Betterbed was 33rd in 19:50.
Gig Harbor could have won its 4th consecutive title and set a new record if either Danie Moon had run 2 seconds faster and finished 28th rather than 30th, or Claire Betterbed had run 3 seconds faster over the 3. 1 miles and finished 31st rather than 33rd. Two seconds faster or 3 seconds faster does not seem like that much unless your are running the 3. 1 mile race in the highest level of competition.
Saturday’s result for the Gig Harbor girls underscores the importance of the 4th and 5th scoring runners during competition. When they are running behind it seems as if the value of their effort is diminished when in fact their importance becomes more valuable with each stride they take. Reaching down deep and passing just a couple of runners near the finish can make the difference between winning a state title and losing a state title.
Eastlake ran a great race and its spread was only 29 seconds between its first and last scoring finisher. Gig Harbor’s spread was 1:40, 71 seconds more. This is one reason why team running is emphasized in cross-country. Your best runner does not have to finish among the top 10 or 13 runners to win a state championship.
Coach Patty Ley and her girls were pretty disappointed to say the least. However, Gig Harbor did amazingly well considering that only one runner—eventual state champion Alyssa Andrews—returned from last year’s state championship team. Their finish was a testimony to Ley’s coaching and the tremendous winning tradition the Gig Harbor girls have built.
The Tide girls preceded their state meet finish by winning their 4th consecutive West Central District III championship at the American Lake Golf Course in Lakewood. Alyssa Andrews won the individual title in 17:45 to lead Gig Harbor to the title.
The Gig Harbor boys had a tougher go of it in the state 4A run, finishing 7th overall with 192 points. Mead High School of Spokane won the title with 98 points, racking up its 14th state championship in cross-country. Mead’s runners finished 8-9-24-27-30 with a 30-second spread.
Mead is legendary in Washington State, producing more top distance runners than any other prep school. Mead won 9 consecutive state titles from 1988 through 1996, and added 3 more titles from 2000 to 2002, making it 12 titles in 15 years. That is dominance by any standard.
Gig Harbor’s top boy finisher—junior Conner Peloquin—was 10th in 15:55. He was followed by sophomore Robby Ubben in 37th at 16:31, senior Chris Adgar-Beal in 43rd at 16:35, junior Spencer Payne in 49th at 16:40, senior Alex Sundell in 53rd at 16:44, senior Nate Funkhouser in 88th at 17:29 and sophomore Casey Kalbrener in 89th at 17:30.
Clearly, the girls rule at Gig Harbor at the moment.

Tags: washington crossing, doylestown, pennsylvania, sesame place, restaurants, history, wineries, bucks county pa, hotels, bucks county

Elmo Knows Your Name – Another Exciting Toy From Fisher Price

Not many childhood figures stay well liked even after several years or even decades. When we think of childhood figures, Sesame Street automatically comes to mind. There is just something special about these quirky characters. For instance, they have been educating kids essential examples of real life situations for almost 40 years. Their concrete popularity can be linked to many things, including their education playthings created to make discovering enjoyable for very young kids. One very famous Sesame Street plaything is Elmo Knows Your Name by Fisher-Price. Talking about Elmo, it is definitely a familiar name to any family with young kids. This famous fun looking doll created by Fisher Price has captured the hearts of many children (and their parents) with its amazingly interactive features. The Elmo Knows Your Name came about around the same time as the Tickle-Me Elmo, and both have been all-time favorite and sudden success among kids and adults as well. Now, the newest Elmo doll, called Elmo Live, has also taken the market by storm with its enhanced interactive and educational features. So, what makes the Elmo Knows Your Name different from the two other hugely successfully Elmo dolls?This Elmo is a 12″ cuddly plush character. When you squeeze a button in his hand or hug him and press a button on the speaker in his tummy, the Elmo will speak. With minimal programming, you can set up the content of its speech, which may include greetings, your child’s name, his favorite color and food, and even its favorite songs. There is also an internal clock so that what the Elmo speaks will change depending on the time of the day (morning, noon and night). This is perfect for the young kids to learn to respond to the time changes within a day. What can be better to engage educational playthings surrounding the cute and huggable Elmo!The Elmo Knows Your Name is an exciting gift for kids aged between 18 months and 3 years. Children at this stage generally become more and more responsive to what surrounds him and starts to learn different people, food, color and shapes, and this Elmo interacts perfectly with what your child are developing. Many customers have expressed particular appreciation for the scheduling feature, as this has helped their kids to understand what needs to be done at different time of a day. If we were to summarize the other two Elmos in one sentence – The Tickle-Me Elmo is all about tickles and the newest Elmo Live can act just as a real person can. Both of them can offer a great deal of fun for kids as well as adults. In this regard, the Elmo Knows Your Name is more for kids. If your child happens to be at the phase of initial language learning and object identifying, the Elmo Knows Your Name will just be a great toy to give him.

Tags: pennsbury manor, pennsylvania, bucks county pa, washington crossing, restaurants, wineries, crayola factory, sesame place, history, doylestown