Cardinals collect solid numbers at Nike XC

A group of Medical Lake cross country runners got to toughen up Sept. 24 at the Nike XC in Portland.

This meet attracts dozens and dozens of teams and hundreds of athletes, many the crème-of-the-crop from the West Coast and the Cardinals came away with a number of notable performances and even some “I told you so’s” to their veteran octogenarian coach.

Senior Reid Headrick jumped out of team competition and ran in the elite Danner division where he clocked a time of 16 minutes, 03.8 seconds on the 5,000-meter Blue Lake Regional Park course landing him in 28th. The individual champion was Alexander Garcia-Silver from Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Ore. at 14:55.2.

 “He ran pretty good for a mile and a half, but he went through the mile. like 4:43,” head coach Gene Blankenship said of the often-rough terrain of cross county courses. “He wasn’t really satisfied and I don’t blame him,” Blankenship added.

Doing hypothetical calculations, Headrick would have run away with the Division 3 race, “But it wouldn’t have done him any good,” Blankenship said.

In team competition the Cardinals may not have had as good a finish as last time where they took home trophies. There were notable efforts, however, ones that will possibly pay dividends later this year in both Northeast A League and postseason competition.

“The best race of the day was a girl in my opinion,” Blankenship the 80-year-old said.

The Cardinal girls ran in Division 2, out voting their coach who wanted them in the lower Division 3. “I originally put them in division three and they got mad at me,” he said. “They wanted to run a tougher race and they finished sixth in Division 2.”

Kayla Ramsey ran her second consecutive race eclipsing the 20-minute threshold finishing sixth with a 19:51.1. Paige Gerrard won the individual title for Snohomish High School with an 18:29.9. Jenna Castro was just behind in seventh at 20:08.6.

“They have this (individual) competition going with each other,” Blankenship said.

A third competitor, freshman Kaylee Dennler, was 26th in a time of 21:37.7 and is an up-and-coming runner. “She’s getting better and better and if I can keep her healthy, I think she’s gonna’ make us a much better team,” Blankenship said.

Had Headrick competed with his teammates it was figured Medical Lake would have landed in fourth in Division 3 rather than 11th (257 points) behind Mt. Si High School (66).

But his absence allowed some younger runners to make names for themselves.

Sophomores Nakai Ornelas (18th/18:04.1) and Hector Gomez (23rd/18:11.8) were the Cardinals’ top finishers. “Those two guys are in a battle with each other every time,” Blankenship said. Both earned event medals that go to the top 50 finishers.

Next for Medical Lake comes the start of NEA competition at Deer Park where Freeman joined in the three-way meet. Following a bye week, the Cardinals host their chief rivals, Lakeside on Wednesday, Oct. 12.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].