Cardinals run away in 18-41 win; girls suffer first Northeast A cross country loss
From right to left, Tyler Pena, Mason Williams and Evan Peterson found themselves well out in front of the rest of the pack last Wednesday in Medical Lake's 18-41 Northeast A League cross country win.
The final major hurdle to the Medical Lake boy's cross country team racing to a regular season Northeast A League championship turned out to be more like a curb.
The Cardinals finished with six runners among the top eight and Medical Lake cruised past host Lakeside 18-41 and Chewelah, 18-85 on Oct. 11.
Medical Lake's girls, who had won a pair of dual meets over Deer Park and Riverside, learned where the power of the NEA had shifted with a decisive 18-39 loss to Lakeside.
"Tyler (Pena) and Mason (Williams) were just cruising," Medical Lake head coach Gene Blankenship said as they led a 1-2-3 finish along with Tanner Henry. Pena and Williams finished in a dead-heat with identical times of 17 minutes, 38 seconds with Henry crossing the finish line on the 5,000-meter course at 17:58. Nicholas Henry (fifth/18:07), Evan Peterson (seventh/18:26) and Zach Lewis (eighth/18:34) rounded out the top group with Quintin Collins (11th/18:55) completing the top-seven.
"All in all the boys just had a comfortable day, we didn't race real hard," Blankenship said as he watched his runners negotiate three and a half loops of the hilly course.
Peterson's finish came despite running with a bad cold. Normally the No. 3 runner, Peterson had run with ML's leaders, and had he continued to do so Pena and Williams agreed to scale back efforts to give their fellow-senior his first individual meet victory.
Recently, Pena has wrested away the No. 1 spot from Williams who had been sick and missed the Riverside meet.
"Last year he finished in the top 16 at state which was a big surprise to us and secured the second place (team finish)," Blankenship said. "This year he's just really come on strong."
Also interesting, and valuable for Medical Lake as district and state competition looms was Brandon McCoy, who because he did not compete earlier, ran the junior varsity race and had the fastest time on the team at 17:28 and a season best.
"I'm excited about Brandon because we're going to need him at state," Blankenship said.
Lakeside's girls flipped the finish of the boys with Eagle runners - led by the 20:54 of Madelyn Buckley - and had five of the top six runners. Medical Lake freshman Maris Tuck broke up the wave with her 21:09 good for third.
"They're tough. They dominated the girls, we dominated the boys," Blankenship said. "The girls tried really hard, they went out a little too hard. I think they were overexcited."
The Cardinals' traditional top girl, Riley Olmstead, missed practice time because of conflicts with band - at least three days - and it makes a big difference, her coach said.
Blankenship suggested that the girls' race against Colville and Chewelah, which took place Oct. 17, might also be eye opening. "There are not too many surprises in cross country races," he said.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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