States- Aaron Wilkinson

As far as Saturday is concerned, I can't say I'm entirely pleased with my end performance, however I don't regret anything I did in the race. I don't want to say I had a bad race because I don't want to take anything away from the other runners, but coming in 19th was not something I was anticipating. I went into the race with the goal of anything in the top 10. I went out hard and was in 4th for the majority of the race until about 1000m to go. I then dropped back to 8th. Once I reached the final hill by the finish, my legs filled with lead and I struggled to cross the line 150m away. Unfortunately, that was where I was passed by 11 people. The cause of this finish could have been a variety of things, but I don't want to try and justify my loss with excuses. I'm willing to just accept what happened, be thankful for my 3rd xc state medal, and look forward to footlocker. There, as the 5th returner in the race, my goal is to qualify for nationals. I'm aware that's it's a lofty goal and footlocker is always a crapshoot, but it's something to aim for and that I believe (on the right given day) I could accomplish.