It was a cross country win for the lower classifications at Stan Hedwall Park in Chehalis Saturday.
Morton-White Pass’ Nicole Anderson outran 85 competitors from 30 2A and 1A teams to win the girls’ race at the Bearcat Invite, an event with around 500 total athletes.
“I think she showed a lot of determination, ran a good race,” Morton-White Pass coach Steve Roberts said. “She took 43 seconds off of last year’s time to take first place amongst a lot of girls.”
Her final time was 19 minutes, 39 seconds on the 5K course. Rounding out the top three were North Thurston’s Hallie Whitley (19:50) and La Center’s Amanda Blankenship (20:04).
On the boys’ side, W.F. West’s Dakota Parker took the meet hosted by his team. The Bearcat runner finished an even 10 seconds ahead of Mark Morris’ Nate Starr at 16:04. Teammates Andy Robertson (third, 16:21), Dallas Snider (sixth, 16:45) and Danny Robertson (14th, 17:16) helped guide Chehalis to a second-place finish overall, behind Mark Morris.
“We were closer than I thought we’d be with (Mark Morris),” Bearcat coach Amber Cruzan said. “It was good to see these guys race.”
Also making noise in the boys race was Onalaska’s Stephen Bottoms, who finished in fifth place at 16:43, and Frank Krause, who finished in seventh at 16:58.
“Stephen just continues to improve,” Logger coach Johnny Garcia said. “And Frankie had a tough race, because he’s been working out a lot.”
Other local standouts on the boys side were Toledo’s Mikhail Hopf (20th, 17:40), Mossyrock’s Travis Johnson (22nd, 17:44) and Riley Alvord (27th, 17:55), W.F. West’s Denver Parker (23rd, 17:46), and Centralia’s Tim Ricker (29th, 18:02) and Andy Salas (31st, 18:05).
“The interesting thing about todays race on the boys side was that our top seven were in a completely different order of finish than they normally are,” Tiger coach Andrew McLaughlin said. We are struggling a little as a team because we don’t have a strong front runner.”
Local girls who excelled were White Pass’ Katherine Kruger, who placed 13th at 21:32; Onalaska’s Emily Simons, who placed 17th at 21:58; Centralia’s Brianna Cowin, who placed 18th at 21:59; Adna’s Megan VonBargen, who placed 23rd at 22:44, and Jessie Vonbargen (28th, 22:58); and W.F. West’s Tori Weeks and Logger runner Kylea Johnson, who finished 31st and 32nd, respectively.
Centralia’s Alex Cowin finished in third in the freshman/sophomore race, and Toledo’s Caleb Rose won the junior varsity portion. Lydia Rose won the JV on the girls side, followed by teammate Kristin Mansker and Chehalis’ Sophie DeBolt.
