Medical Lake Middle School also wins league cross country title

The future appears to be bright for Medical Lake cross country with both its middle school varsity and junior programs winning league championships.

Medical Lake High School, which were the defending state 1A champions, recently finished ninth in state competition and have made seven consecutive state appearances.

While in the regular season, the MLMS varsity had a 2-3 record with two of the losses to Lakeside Middle School in Nine Mile, the team made sure there was a different outcome in the championship.

“We knew the league finals would be an exciting race, not only because of the competition we would face but because we felt the boys would have to really push themselves in order to win,” head coach Jerry Ornelas wrote in an email.

Using traditional race strategy, Ornelas explained that in order to have a chance at winning in the league finals, “We knew we had to stay with the Lakeside team. Our athletes discussed staying together as much as possible throughout the race.”

Their strategy paid off with Medical Lake winning a close one over Lakeside, 38–41.

“Both coach Bill Berg and I are extremely proud of what the entire team (boys and girls) accomplished,” Ornelas said. “We had some first-time runners step up and be team leaders. We had some returners improve their PRs. It was a wonderful season.” 

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].