It was another good week for the Medical Lake High School cross country team, in more ways than one.
Not only did the Cardinal boys win their Sept. 29 Northeast A League meet over both host Lakeside and visiting Riverside with relative ease, but they also finished third at the Curtis Invite Saturday in Tacoma.
But the biggest news, perhaps, came when head coach Gene Blankenship learned the NEA would receive three team berths into the state meet, Nov. 5 in Pasco. He had thought there might only be two teams allowed in, which put some added pressure on his Cardinal runners.
In the NEA race held on the 5,000-meter course at Sontag Park in Nine Mile Falls, the Medical Lake boys scored a 19-36 win over Riverside and 22-31 versus Lakeside. The girls, meanwhile, fell to Lakeside 21-34 and Riverside 23-33.
“I figured that out a whole bunch of ways and I thought it would either be close or we were going to get beat,” Blankenship said. “We went two, three, four.”
Ben Shaw of Riverside was the top individual in 17 minutes, 6 seconds, but ML’s Mason Williams was not far behind at 17:20. Tyler Pena (17:25) and Brandon McCoy (17:32) were the top Cardinal runners.
The girls were led by another strong performance from freshman Riley Olmstead, who finished sixth with a time of 21:46. Another freshman, Lizzie Shaw from Riverside was the top individual girl at 20:38.
While his Cardinals are coming along well, Blankenship acknowledged, “Deer Park is still the class of the league,” finishing second in an invitational in Wenatchee.
“All in all I was pleased by my kids Wednesday and we had another good weekend trip,” Blankenship said of the journey to the Curtis Invite. There, the Cardinals (218 points) placed behind Kentridge, a 4A school with 187, and Bellingham, a 2A school with 214. “We were just four places out of second,” Blankenship said.
The Cardinals were led by Williams in 16:55 and Pena across at 17:14. James Mwaura from Lincoln in Tacoma was the top boy in a time of 15:36.70. The girls’ varsity race was lead by Olmstead in 20:50 followed closely by Mariah Pena at 21:15. Sophia Cantine from Lakeside in Seattle won in a time of 18:37.10.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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