Season Stories: Jack Tidball

Jack, I apologize for adding something before your story, BUT the blog has just hit 100k views! I'm really excited about this and I hope all of you are as well :) Thanks so much for all of the support so far, I really appreciate it!!
Also, I noticed that NA went from 8th to 18th and Henderson only moved up to 10th, which is ridiculous that they assumed NA just got really worse and not that Henderson has gotten much better. I think all 3 teams have top 15 potential at a national level. Now for Tidball's story!



Jack Tidball had a very solid sophomore campaign for Tunkhannock Area. He ran a swift 9:45 clocking for 3200 and was the top guy during XC, placing 36^th at the state meet. Tidball was looking to lead a group of 5/7 returners from a 4^th place team into another high finish at the state meet.

The first big meet to start of the season was Penn State, where Tidball had a game plan in mind, “I knew that course was fast so I went out to do the best I could and run without putting any expectations on myself I was happy with the PR of 16:11.” After that his team focused on the district meet and didn’t run any big invitationals, they stayed working for that goal of going back to the state meet.

As districts rolled around, Tidball felt as though his team as looking strong. Looking back, Tidball says, “The district win I would say was pretty much a total surprise we were hoping to sneak into the top 2 at districts.” After the district win however, his team looked towards the state meet with a new light… victory was the goal.

Knowing times are similar from the district to state meet, the Tunkhannock squad felt that if they kept their season motto, ‘All for Gods Glory,’ that it would turn out well, and it did, as they won the state championship by just 4 points over Pottsgrove. Tidball claims, “I am very happy with the team win and the 11^th place finish. Every time we stepped out on that starting line we were out there to race our hardest but also Praise God and lift His name. I think we accomplished that at states.”

Jack Tidball will be finishing his season with a few teammates at Footlocker Regionals where he hopes to medal in the junior race. Saying about the Seeded race: “I am really routing for other kids in district 2 to make it to nationals.”