Medical Lake cross country will have the benefit of a solid finish to their Northeast A League season to launch them on the road to state.
Both boys and girls wound up as runners-up in the NEA, each with a 6-1 record, to regular-season champ Lakeside.
The No. 4 state-ranked Cardinal girls cruised past both Colville (21-34) and Riverside (19-36) while the unranked boys edged Riverside (26-29) and Colville (15-45).
The girls’ team, with only six runners and Jenna Castro running ill, were led by Kayla Ramsey who won the individual race in a time of 19 minutes, 38 minutes. She finished close to 90 seconds ahead of runner-up, Colville freshman Zadi Zier (20:59).
Jenna Castro (3rd/21:12) and Jasmine Cruz (4th/21:20) gave Medical Lake three out of the top four finishers. “Cruz had a season’s best, running one of her best league races this season,” head coach Gene Blankenship noted in a Facebook post.
“We had our No. 4 and No. 5 girls (Hazel Grubaugh (8/22:52 and Kaitlyn Wiley (9/22:55) run under 23 minutes this season for the first time,” Blankenship said. They both also had PR efforts in the process.
The Medical Lake boys had a tougher road to their win. “As expected, Riverside boys ran a very good race against our team,” Blankenship noted.
Reid Headrick, running ill, clocked a winning time of 17 minutes, 27 seconds finished ahead of Riverside’s Cade Spencer (17:41) with Medical Lake’s Nakai Ornelas (3rd/17:58)and Hector Gomez (4th/18:07) giving the Cardinals three of the top four placings.
“Garrett Montney, running fourth man, saved the day by out-kicking Riverside’s fifth man and wound up eighth (19:04),” Blankenship said. Sam Ornelas (10th/19:23) got into the top-10 giving his team five finishers.
The next step to state, which will be run Nov. 5 in Pasco will take place this weekend, but is a different format than in years past.
The boys Bi-District race, where they will compete against Central Washington 1A schools, will be run at Apple Ridge Golf Course in Yakima on Friday, Oct. 28 at 4:15 p.m. This race was once run, like the girls, at Chewelah Golf Course. The girls battle on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 1:15 p.m.
In preparation for these events, Blankenship is dialing back the training, but emphasizing health care.
“We need to concentrate this week on getting everyone healthy,” he said. “I am highly recommending that everyone wear a mask to school I know it can be uncomfortable, but it will give us some protection.”
Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)