Medical Lake’s boy and girls cross country teams got some stellar efforts last Saturday at the Seaport Classic in Clarkston, Wash.
Running against a field of a number of bigger schools, the Cardinal boys repeated their 2017 runner-up finish to Idaho 5A Lewiston and finished a point ahead of 2A Pullman on the three-mile Beachview Park course.
Medical Lake’s girls, competing with a makeshift lineup since their top two runners were not at the meet, were fifth-place finishers.
“The point is we want to run as many big schools as we can, just so they get used to having that hard competition,” head coach Gene Blankenship said.
Lewiston took a relatively easy win, 57-84 over Medical Lake while Pullman had 85.
One of the Lewiston athletes out-kicked a Pullman runner at the finish line, otherwise the Greyhounds would have tied Medical Lake — and beaten them — by virtue of the sixth-place runner finish.
Sophomore Quintin Collins was fourth overall in a time of 16 minutes, 43.86 seconds. Pullman’s Roman Romanyuk was the top boys finisher at 15:49.75. Victor Long, a junior, was seventh at 16:54.90, earning a ribbon as a top-10 placer.
Medical Lake did not run their No. 2, Zach Lewis, who is nursing an injury. “We’re just cautious with him,” Blankenship said.
For the girls, Medical Lake did not run their No. 1, freshman Allison Payne — who Blankenship said was sore from the previous week — and No. 2 Riley Olmsted, a sophomore, who had a work commitment.
Despite this, they collected 112 points and finished behind team champ Pullman’s 51.
Senior Jenavieve Cogswell was the top Cardinal girl in 15th with a 21:27.07. Asotin’s Carmen Eggleston was the top girls finisher at 19:24.67.
“We’re just working through some little nagging pains, nothing major,” Blankenship said. “We’re just trying to be cautious with the kids the first part of the season.”
Blankenship reiterated that the team is a great deal stronger than originally thought, this despite losing a significant number of seniors due to graduation.
“We’re going to get a good test next week because Connell is one of the top-
rated teams in 1A,” Blankenship said. Medical Lake did run and won at Connell a few years ago.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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