Medical Lake’s boys’ cross country team came within mere seconds of staging their biggest win and upset in years last Wednesday at home versus Lakeside.
The Cardinal boys brought home three runners in the top-5 against the defending state 1A champions, but still fell 25-30 to the Eagles in a Northeast A League meet.
Sophomore Micah Dingfield clocked a 17 minute, 10 second time on the 3.1 mile campus course to finish second behind Lakeside’s Ryan Coffman’s 17 flat. The Eagles’ J.T. Lauderdale ran a 17:12 for third place while Zeb Klemke at 17:21, and the 17:23 from Dominic Rehm rounded out the top finishers.
The Medical Lake girls didn’t fare as well, falling 18-40 as Lakeside’s Lindy Jacobson paced the field with a winning time of 19:43 to lead a contingent of four Eagle runners in the top-5. The Cards’ Kelby Wagner was fourth at 20:51.
Head coach Gene Blankenship said it was a difference of 25 seconds, but back a bit in the pack, that decided it.
“Our fourth kid ran a really good race, he just couldn’t beat their fifth kid,” Blankenship said of Tim Chernishoff, who showed huge improvement, bettering his previous PR by some five minutes with a time of 18:09. Had Chernishoff gotten that spot, Blankenship sees the finished tied at 28-28 with the tiebreaker going to Medical Lake based on the sixth runner.
Following an NEA meet at Chewelah this past Tuesday, the Cards will travel to Clarkston and attempt to defend the title they won at the Seaport Invitational in 2011. Smoke from area fires postponed the event earlier in September.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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