RAINIER – As soon as the gun went off, Toledo High School’s Treyton Marty went up front and started to build a lead that would be far too much to overcome.
It wasn’t all for making sure the Class 2B District 4 individual win. The top priority was feeling out how next week’s state meet at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco would shake out from a pace standpoint.
“I wanted to start out too fast,” Marty said. “I wanted to see how my body (could) handle it.”
A final time of 16 minutes, 44 seconds flat at Rainier Elementary School wouldn’t sniff a state title, the primary goal that Marty has set for himself since the very beginning. Yet despite not being thrilled with the time, the win made up for it.
After back-to-back seasons of runner-up finishes at districts, he was able to cross the finish line before anyone else.
“I really wanted to win today, I’m just glad I held through,” Marty said.
The opening mile was fast. Marty’s gap between him and the chase pack that featured teammate Conner Hill – who finished in fourth place – was increasing with each step.
As the final two miles were happening, the distance was shrinking. Still, Marty beat Morton-White Pass’ duo of Vanson Armstrong and Hunter Brackett by 27 seconds.
It will likely be a four-man race for the individual state title in Pasco. Liberty Bell’s Dexter Delaney recently ran 15:14.8 at the CWB league meet to be the top-ranked runner in Class 1B/2B.
Valley Christian’s Westin Madden, Marty and Chewelah’s Emmitt Warren are separated by 10 seconds from their best times this fall. Brendan Snekvik of Garfield-Palouse is fifth with a best time of 16:07.
No one else has broken 16:10, yet.
“At this rate, I don’t really care if I get second compared to sixth or seventh, I’m going to go out hard again at state,” Marty said. “I want a state championship, so I’m going to take that risk. Even if it fails, I’d rather not have a regret.”
MWP clipped Adna 34-55 to win the district team championship. The margin was cut in half between the two schools from the league meet a week ago.
Still, the Timberwolves had enough to prevail. Armstrong and Brackett finished second and third while Noah Gilstrap was fifth in a new PR of 18:20.92 and Aiden Kampa placed eighth.
That was enough to upend the Pirates, who had all five of their scoring runners finish between seventh and 14th place.
“It is breath-taking, honestly,” Brackett said. “It is huge to be here in this moment. I'm at a loss for words right now.”
A senior, Brackett was a part of the 2021 team that qualified for state. From that point on, he wanted the taste of a title. When the Timberwolves huddled up around a cell phone waiting for the results to show up, they unleashed a loud cheer when it was unveiled.
They have previously finished dead last in the team race at state. They don’t want history to repeat itself.
“They really want to get on the podium (top-eight),” MWP assistant coach Scott Draper said. “Have a good week in practice and see where it takes us.”
Despite the graduation of star Jordan Stout, Adna still has pieced together a strong team behind pack running. Trevin Willis was its top runner on Saturday, placing seventh overall in a new PR of 18:28.17.
“Couldn’t ask them to do more,” Pirates head coach Karl VonBargen said. “Naturally, it kind of came together. It has been great. To move that pack forward has been our goal.”
Winlock (84), Rainier (103) and Toledo (122) finished third-through-fifth to secure the last three team spots in the field.
Every runner for the Cardinals hit a PR while the Mountaineers got a lift from Zach Hamilton returning plus Owen Timbers running under 20 minutes for the first time ever. The Riverhawks’ last three scoring runners finished inside the top-55.
“Why not us today?” Winlock head coach Tony Quezada said. “Boys showed up and ran their butts off. Very happy.”
“They put some mileage in over the summer and you can tell it helped,” Rainier head coach Rob Henry added.
Additional local individuals heading to state were Onalaska’s tandem of Austin and Logan Sturza plus Napavine’s Landon Engelbertson.
