In a Swamp Cup cross country head-to-head meet, Centralia swept the boys and girls individual and team wins over W.F. West on Wednesday afternoon at Fort Borst Park. The Tigers beat the Bearcats 23-36 on the boys side and 18-43 for the girls.
Centralia sophomore Ethan Weiher ran 18 minutes, 20 seconds flat to nip W.F. West’s Ezra Birchard for the win. The Tigers had six more runners in the top-10 with senior Gavin Etter placing third. Bearcat freshman Jeffrey Hartwell and junior David Moeckel placed fourth and seventh, respectively.
For the girls, Centralia went 1-2-3 with Elyse O’Dell crossing the line in 23:33.79, nearly two minutes clear of teammate Esther Hopkins and sophomore Eva Stout was third. Senior Riley Meade took fifth for the Tigers. Three sophomores crossed the finish line in seventh, eighth and ninth.
W.F. West’s Loren Kattenbraker took fourth and Violet Gorman placed seventh.
Tumwater boys nearly post perfect team score
Behind the scoring five runners in the top-six, the Thunderbirds upended county rival Black Hills 16-45 in the boys race in a dual meet at Pioneer Park on Wednesday afternoon.
Joshua Morgan clipped T-Birds teammate Zane McAferty by almost five seconds to win the individual race while two freshmen – Landon Anderson and William Zahn – snared third and fourth place, respectively. Hayden Newman finished in sixth place. Black Hills’ Seth Thomasson secured fifth for the Wolves while Mason Burke (seventh) and Nathan Brazil (10th) notched top-10 placements.
For the girls, Black Hills had more than five runners to qualify as a team while Tumwater’s group of four all placed in the top-six. Returning state qualifier for the Thunderbirds Alexandra Broome won the race over Black Hills freshman Maddie Knight.
Raegan Smith (third) and seniors Miriam Ore plus Rachel Zarn were separated by 15 seconds apart. Black Hills’ Avrie Reynolds took home fourth and the rest of its team finished 7th-14th in the girls race.
