“All the memories came flooding back — old Mrs. McAvoy eating that horrible chicken and the terrified child running from the burning wreck.” — Vivian Stanshall, 1972

I spent Saturday morning helping take care of my grandson, Corvid, at a “Foxes and Hounds” cross-country meet at Cottonwood Park in Colorado Springs.

The Foxes and Hounds meet is different than customary cross races because each team first starts its No. 7 runner, then 20 seconds later its No. 6 and 20 seconds after that, its No. 5, and so on. The meet is scored at the end just like a regular invitational, but it begins with the starter’s gun being fired seven times, 20 seconds apart. In the vast majority of cross meets, everybody runs at the start of a gun once.

Colorado had never had this kind of meet until my son, Wayland High School graduate Robby Young, took over the reigns as head varsity cross-country coach at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs. Rampart still is the only school that uses that format for an invitational. This one attracted 15 teams, but Robby’s Rams Saturday did a complete sweep, winning the junior varsity and varsity girls’ and boys’ competitions.

The memory went back 17 years ago, when Robby was a senior running for Steve Harcourt and the Wildcat squad.

It was Kalamazoo Hackett that had the Foxes and Hounds Invitational every year, and Robby ran in it for all four of his varsity seasons  for the Wildcats. Robby entered as Wayland’s No. 1 runner, but he had to settle for second place at the finish line because a teammate, Ryan Mauchmar, entered at No. 7, managed to hang on long enough to win the individual race.

Ryan Mauchmar was an unusual athlete in that he could be very impressive on occasions, but most of the time he was the scrub on the bench, indeed the seventh runner on the Wayland cross-country team. He is the son of former Wayland City Councilman Rod Mauchmar and former Wayland Board of Education member Betsy Frigmanski.

That one Saturday at Kalamazoo Hackett, Mauchmar more than rose to the occasion. He took the lead among the first group in the race and never gave it up, not even when his teammate, Robby, gave him a strong challenge at the end. Mauchmar somehow had his mind made up that this day and this contest belonged to him. Mauchmar was a fox, Robby a hound.

After Ryan graduated from Wayland High School, I hear tell he went into the military, but I haven’t heard anything about him since. But I’m willing to bet my next paycheck that he will never forget that day, nor what he accomplished, the individual medalist accolades.

Robby certainly hasn’t forgotten. After all these years, he made a point to introduce the Foxes and Hounds to Colorado.

Thanks, Ryan.