Kevin Rosaaen came to the Bellevue Invitational this Saturday at Lake Sammamish off a short but important race at the Bellarmine Invitational. The hard 2 mile run ended in a tension filled finish with the top seven guys spread out with less than a second between each of them. Kevin took 6th. It appears, he learned one thing from that race, let them know who plans on winning the race from the beginning.
Kevin laid it out short and sweet. He took a fast lead and quickly set a formidable task for the second group of runners. By mile one he was 30 yards ahead of the pack and seemed to add inches to the distance on each step.
Barely 1000 yards later Sam Wegman of Blanchet and Kevin Aubol of Ellensburg led a group of several runners in a clear attempt to bridge the gap. As if awaken by the cheering crowds on the beach, they burst past the fans and gained on Kevin. By the time the runners disappeared into the woods it was unclear if the lead Kevin had laid out would hold.
Kevin seemed to pull a sleight of hand in the approach to the 2 mile mark, by the time he emerged from the woods and came down the last roadway and back into the cheering crowds he was firmly ahead enough so that an observant viewer could see the focus of the second wave change from challenging Kevin for the win, to battling it out for second place.
Kevin was well ahead of almost the exact same final showdown he was in two weeks earlier at The Bellarmine Invite.
Kevin finished at 15:44.79,12 seconds ahead of Sam Wegman 15:56.46 the leader of a tight second wave with seconds between the next 3 guys.
It was a treat watching this race unfold. Kevin took an early lead and fought off a noble attempt to overtake him. Kevin used creative race tactics and pure guts to steer the race and the racers to a point where everyone knew who was boss , even to the point where runners of equal caliber turned there attention away from him and onto each other.
Kevin Rosaaen is a Junior at Wilson High School. This is his third XC Season
Last year At the State Track Meet, he placed 11th in the 3200 9:30 and 37th at the State XC meet 16:40
