![MORE THAN A GAME. With two diving catches in the outfield, the Lions showed up defensively, aiding in their victory over the Pacers. One catch was made by Atwood, and the other by McGraw. Throughout the game, the Lions knew that it wasn’t just about their victory today. “I think [playing for cancer] makes it bigger than just a game,” McGraw said. “Knowing that you have a bigger impact in this world than just who you are as one person.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/I70A1454-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Students in the National Art Honor Society work on the Mount Hood mural on the window of SouthLake Church. The students brought a variety of paints and mixed their own custom colors. “Instead of brushstrokes, we’re doing more dabbing, because it gives [a] better impression of tree foliage, rather than looking like actual brush strokes, because if we’re painting trees, we need it to look like trees,” Crawford said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2397-1200x900.jpg)
On Oct. 1, West Linn High School’s cross country team traveled to Clackamas Community College for their seventh meet. Emerson Mobley, freshman, is a runner for the womens team and broke her personal record (PR) and ran a 19:24 during the race today, beating her previous time of 19:55.
“My training is paying off, I feel really proud of myself,” Mobley said. “It means a lot helping my team out, and just knowing I’m strong enough to do hard things.”
Eleanor Wyatt, sophomore, is a two year varsity runner, and has a philosophy that having her teammates by her side helps her stay motivated to continue working.
“I think it’s been really cool, this year we have five girls under 20 [minutes] so far, just seeing that everyone’s putting in hard work, it’s more motivating to see when you have ten to fifteen girls showing up to practice willing to put in the work,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt and her team trained before the season started to prepare themselves for upcoming meets.
“We just [have] been doing a lot of strength work, which I think really helped our program focus all summer on just building up our strength and endurance, which has been really helpful,” Wyatt said.
Leo Brown, junior, believes his teammates and coaches have helped motivate him to achieve his goal.
“All my teammates and coaches helped me so much; my coaches gave me race plans, gave me workouts, they helped me never have any questions, they’re the best,” Brown said. “My teammates, they motivate me every day. So many people work alongside me, it’s really inspirational seeing how many people can work toward a goal.”
With the season just starting off, Brown made a goal for himself this race and was able to push through and accomplish his aspiration.
“My goal this race was to go out slower and wind up at the end, and that’s what happened. There are two guys who had a little bit more than me in the last mile, but you know that’s the game,” Brown said.
To become the runner Brown is now, he and his team began training during the summer prior to the official season starting. Just like the women’s team, the men’s team has been training even before school kicked off.
“I’ve been working all summer, these guys that I’ve been beating have been way ahead of me my whole life, [and] it feels great to see my hard work pay off,” Brown said.
Charley Aguilar-Auld, junior, beat his PR as well during this race, and his hard work shows while racing.
“It’s a good PR, [it was] 16:27, [and] I beat it by nine seconds. I was able to run this [time] all year; I just had to apply it to a race, and it finally paid off,” Aguilar-Auld said.
With the support and push from his teammates and coaches, Aguilar-Auld gets through the race.
“My coaches help me with any questions I need, they’re what gets me this fast, and then my teammates, they really helped push me in all different types of workouts, help pace me, a big help,” Aguilar-Auld said.
