By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
Cheney's girls cross country team placed all five of their scoring runners in the top 10 to open defense of their Great Northern League title with a 25-32 win last Wednesday at Deer Park.
Sanne Holland ran away from the field for first place in a time of 20 minutes, 4 seconds while teammate Amie Zachman finished second in 20:54. Kendall Dunn was fifth overall with a time of 22:15 while Savannah Phelan was eighth in 22:41, edging teammate Amanda Batchelor who finished two seconds back in ninth overall.
Anika Kuula was 10th with a time of 22:59 while Sarah Benzel was 11th in 23:27.
The Blackhawks' boys are retooling to make a run at a GNL title, and showed they are close to being challengers despite getting edged by the Stags 28-29. Nash Springberry led Cheney, finishing second in 17:29 with Devon Poulsen third at 17:39, Aaron Brenton fourth in 17:45 and Jacob Mager eighth in 18:05, giving Cheney a 36-second spread between its top four scoring runners.
Where the Blackhawks need to improve is in their fifth scoring spot, needing to get a runner closer to the top-four gap. Deer Park's fifth scorer placed ninth in 18:41, with Cheney's final three varsity runners 57 seconds back, led by Corey Klotz-Brooks in 12th at 19:38, Nick Steele 13th in 20:13 and Mark Vincent 14th in 20:39.
Saturday the Blackhawks got a big non-league chance to work on their technique, traveling to Missoula for the Mountain West Invitational at the University of Montana Golf Course. The Blackhawks' girls placed seventh out of 45 teams from throughout Washington, Idaho and Montana while the boys finished 16th out of 46 schools.
Holland led the girls scoring on the three-mile course, placing sixth with a time of 18:24, followed by Zachman in 21st in 19:22, Kinsie Pease 39th in 19:55, Phelan 106th in 21:15 and Batchelor 112th in 21:20. Benzel was 143rd in 21:45 and Kuula 152nd out of 313 runners in 21:51.
Poulsen led the boys, finishing 64th out of 347 runners with a time of 16:47, followed by Springberry in 77th and Brenton in 78th, both at 17 minutes and Jacob Mager 83rd at 17:05. Klotz-Brooks was 193rd in 18:23, with James Borchers 213th in 18:37 and Dakota Torkelson 221st in 18:40.
“It was just an enormous field of course,” Martin said. “Neither the girls or boys were intimidated by the field size though. To be in a field that big we're super proud with how they raced.”
Cheney's schedule is light this week with the only meet being Saturday's West Valley Invitational at Plantes Ferry Park. Martin said the schedule would give them some time to work more on racing technique as well as conditioning.
“We'll have a chance to work this week without being interrupted by a meet,” Martin said.
The Deer Park results helped move the Blackhawks girls' team up two notches to third in the Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association's Sept. 12 2A poll while the boys fell from seventh to ninth.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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