Ignited by four personal bests in their scoring five, the Thunderbirds recorded 133 points to claim the Silver Division team title at Saturday’s Fort Steilacoom Invite. Triple digit schools were a part of the event broken down into bronze, silver and gold divisions.
Zane McAferty was the highest finishing Tumwater runner in 12th place, then the PR’s started to flood. Hayden Newman ran 17 minutes, 26.30 seconds to place 18th, followed by Landon Anderson (17:37.80) and Tyler Clark (17:47.60) placed in the top-40. Landon Martin crossed the finish line in 55th in 18:02.60.
Centralia, Rainier and W.F. West all were in the bronze division. Rainier’s top-two boys of Zach Hamilton and James Morrison recorded second and fifth place finishes, respectively, to pace its eighth place team finish with 242 points.
Centralia secured sixth place in the team race with 222 points. Ethan Weiher and Evan Thummel were separated by .40 seconds to each finish in the top-25. W.F. West’s duo of David Moeckel and Connor Clary crossed the finish line in the top-40. Thummel and Moeckel each ran PRs.
For the girls, the Mountaineers’ top-three dominated to lead them to a runner-up team placement of 82 points. Komaire Robles ran 20:42.20 to finish second, eight seconds in front of teammate Jazzy Shumate’s fourth place performance. Alexis Myers was seventh and Kinsley Barlow placed 25th.
Centralia was fifth in the team race with 164 points, breaking a tie with Kentlake. Senior Elyse O’Dell paced the Tigers by registering in 12th in 22:01.10 while Liesel Stout and Eva Stout ran in 38th and 40th, respectively. W.F. West’s two runners of Azami Bortoletto and Kate Turner placed 35th and 43rd.
In the silver division, Tumwater’s Alexandra Broome ran 20:58.60 to secure 13th overall.
Hill records third straight top-three finish
Toledo sophomore Conner Hill already has a third place and a win through two meets. He picked up a runner-up finish at Saturday's Three Course Challenge in Oregon. Hill’s time of 17:44.30 was on the difficult course and he was nicked for the win by Rogers’ Amin Fidaar.
Tenino’s Carter Mounts and Justin Schlesner also ran the difficult course and placed 53rd and 78th, respectively. Adna’s Colton Rind (94th) and Winlock’s Jacob Trodahl (150th) were their respective schools’ best finishers on the difficult course.
On the moderate course, the only two runners that placed in the top-100 were Tenino’s Josiah Marzolf (54th) and Winlock’s Oscar Silvestre (95th).
On the girls side, only Haley Huber of Tenino ran the difficult course and placed 63rd in just over 27 minutes. The highest area finisher on the moderate course was Toledo’s Braelyn Norberg, 30th in 24:25.20. Teammate Lilly Cooper was 54th and Tenino’s Samantha Smith placed 44th.
Gilstrap leads MWP at loaded PLU Invite
The Timberwolves’ were one of the smallest schools to compete at Saturday’s PLU Invite, hosted by Pacific Lutheran University, in Tacoma. Noah Gilstrap was their best finisher with a new lifetime best of 18:17.20 to place 26th.
MWP’s four other runners all placed in the top-50. Owen Loucks (19:13.60) and Jevan Austin (19:52.20) both ran new PRs while Vanson Armstrong and Aiden Kampa were separated by .80 seconds. Gemma Jakubowski placed 96th in the girls race.
