by Coach Larry Royce
The
Lynden Christian Invitational is the original meet for
Christian schools. The meet was first offered in
1973 and has been a constant over the last 37 years.
It is unique in that it has been offered on a week night
in order to avoid conflict with other invitationals
which typically occur on Saturdays. LC hoped that
by running the meet during the week that all the
Christian schools in the Northwest part of the state
would be able to participate without having to choose
between it and other meets.
The meet has a unique format
in that there is no team score kept and awards are
provided for all 8 place winners. Typically most
invitational’s will only allow one or two competitors
where LC permits us to enter 3 contestants per event and
a few more by arrangement. This gives some of our
younger and less experienced kids a chance to compete in
a format where they have a chance to not only compete in
an invitational but also bring home an event award.
For some strange reason, the
BCS track team has always performed well at the LC track
in this meet. We affectionately refer to it as the
“PR Palace” (PR= Personal Record). The meet is
also unique in the fact that we are not competing for a
team award so we can do some different things with the
athletes in terms of events. The entire
afternoon/evening has always been a time of great fun
for all the athletes and coaches and has proven to be
rewarding in the area of performance goals.
Finally, as is the case with the Kings Invitational,
there is something very special about having all of the
athletes and coaches gather together for prayer at the
beginning then compete with fellow believers.
