Running is one of the most popular and consistently successful athletic programs at CWA.  In the past year, Tarriers have won state championship titles in three events and recorded 16 top-eight finishes.  CWA has also dominated the league’s Middle School running events and half the student body in the Lower School belonged to the after-school Running Club this fall.  With all that enthusiasm for running, it should come as no surprise that CWA has on its campus one of the fastest runners in the nation. 

This past weekend, fifth grader Jesse Goldstone turned in another top-ten finish at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship, an event hosted by USA Track and Field.  Goldstone ran three kilometers in 11 minutes and 31 seconds, just nine seconds behind the winner of the boys 10 and under race.

“The weather was beastly,” reported his dad, John Goldstone, after returning from the race in Reno, Nevada.  The Goldstones traveled to Reno six days early so Jesse could learn the course and get acclimated to the elevation.  “We arrived to eight inches of snow falling Monday and the snow continued to fall most of the week.  We probably saw 16 to 20 inches fall.  We awoke Tuesday to -1 degrees Fahrenheit.  Temperatures were in the mid-teens most of the week.  The snow depth made it difficult to practice the course at 4,650 feet in elevation,” said John.

Jesse’s race was one of the most tightly contested events of the day.  At the top of the first hill, he worked his way through more than 200 runners to get into the tiny group of three leading the race.  He pulled to the front at the 1K mark and held a narrow lead until the 2K mark.  The runners then climbed a second long hill.  Jesse made a carefully calculated move to retake the lead on that hill, but this time his competitors were able to stay with him and he finished in ninth place.  It was a tough race, in tough conditions, but Jesse still managed to improve upon his performance at last year’s national championship and Tarrier sports fans can look forward to watching him run for many more years.

Jesse began running competitively at age five.  He finished in tenth place at last year’s national cross country championship, took third in the 1500 meter national track championship in the spring, and took seventh in the 800 meter race at the same event.  In November, he won the regional championship in Spokane, competing against children from all over Washington, Alaska and northern Oregon.

When he’s not running against the fastest young feet in the nation, Jesse enjoys running at Charles Wright with his friends in the CWA running club.  “Jesse is a great kid who is having huge success in running!” says Diane Hunt, the Lower School head.  “In addition, he’s smart, humble and kind.”

Jesse’s older brother David, a freshman, is also a runner.  He helped the Tarriers win fifth place at the state boys cross country meet this fall.