Cheney's Bas Holland finds he has a lot of room between himself and the rest of the pack early in Wednesday's meet with visiting East Valley.
Cheney High's boys cross country team stayed on track to contend for a Great Northern League season title with a convincing, 22-35 win last Wednesday over visiting East Valley on the 5,000-meter course at Salnave Park.
The Blackhawks girls also kept themselves in the hunt for post-season hardware by downing the Knights 20-43.
Bas Holland led all boys runners, finishing first with a time of 16 minutes, 41.38 seconds, over 33 seconds ahead of East Valley's Will Sharp in second. Blackhawks sophomore Beckett Schoenleber turned in a new personal record of 17:23.69 to finish third, with teammate Julian Torres not far behind for fourth in 17:28.11.
Seniors Dillon Newbry and Tucker Cunningham rounded out Cheney's varsity scoring by finishing sixth and eighth in 17:39.86 and 17:53.83. Andres Magraf was 10th in 18:08.77 and Kyle Peabody was 11th in 18:10.96.
The Cheney girls dominated their opponents by placing all seven runners in the top eight positions, led by Marion Mager-Reeser's second-place time of 21:03.97 - just over 14 seconds behind top-finisher Sabrina Sharp. Mager-Reeser was followed by Alexia Batchelor in third (21:47.69), Mayah Spakousky in fourth (21:57.33) and Ryleigh Bowes in fifth (22:04.44), with Anna Richardson rounding out the scoring in sixth in 22:24.22.
Caelyn Foster was seventh in 22:44.66 and Camber Moad was eighth in 23:15.08.
The win runs Cheney's boys record to 3-0, while the girls move to 2-1 in the GNL standings. Both teams sit tied with their final league opponent Pullman, who comes to town Wednesday, Oct. 10, results next week.
Cheney and Pullman occupy six of the top 10 time slots in the GNL, with the Greyhounds Eliason Kabasenche atop the standings with a time 15:42.00. Holland is second in 16:02.00, while Torres and Schoenleber are eighth and ninth.
The battle for the GNL title may come down to each team's fourth and fifth runners: Newbry and Cunningham for Cheney and Jesse Rector and Asher Cousins for Pullman. Just 4.3 seconds separates the foursome, with Newbry and Cunningham owning the 14th and 15th best times so far this season and Rector and Cousins the 15th and 16th.
The Greyhounds girls only loss this year is to West Valley, as is Cheney's. All seven of Pullman's runners are in the top 15 times, led by league leader freshman Kylie Franklin's 19:41.8.
Cheney's seven occupy spots from seventh to 25th, led by Mager-Reeser's PR of 21:03.97 against East Valley.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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