Medical Lake girl runners race to third

LEWISTON, Idaho – The Medical Lake girls cross country team finished third and the boys fifth in their divisions at the Les MacDowell Invite hosted by Asotin High School.

The Cardinal girls have attracted statewide attention with a No. 5 ranking among 1A schools in the state coaches’ poll.

“We just saw real good improvement (over the first meet at Hermiston, Ore.), Coach Gene Blankenship said. “We’ve still got some work to do to get back to state.”

In girls varsity, Logos won the team award with a low of 57 points, followed by Pullman with 60. Medical Lake was third with 67 team points.

St. George’s was fourth with 81 points and College Place rounded out the Top 5 with 107 points.

The Cardinal girls were paced by sophomore Kaylee Dennler, who finished the 5,000-meter course in 20:09, good enough for a fifth-place finish.

Other top Cardinal girls included senior Kaitlyn Wiley, eighth with a time of 21:04; junior Jazel Grubaugh, 19th with 23:05; junior Hanna Luzier, 24th, 23:34; and freshmen Madison “Madi” Griffis and Autumn Trout, who finished 27th and 28th, respectively, with times of 23:48 and 23:52.

In the boys division, Medical Lake finished fifth overall as a team with 162 points.

The 5,000-meter team varsity boys award went to Pullman, with a low team score of 78.

Valley Christian was second with 85 points and College Place third with 29. Lewiston, Idaho, was fourth with 154.

The Cardinal boys were led by junior Nakai Ornelas, who finished ninth overall with a time of 17:11.

Junior Hector Gomez was 14th in 17:31 and junior Garret Montney was 26th with a time of 18:20.

The only other Cardinal to break in to the boys Top 50 was senior Hayden Luzier, who was 44th with a time of 19:16.

This week, the cross country team travels to Kettle Falls to compete in the Can-Am Invitational.

That meet is set for Saturday morning, Sept. 23, at the Kettle Falls Day Use Area along Lake Roosevelt.

The meet kicks off with some 1.5-mile middle school events beginning at 10 a.m., junior varsity at 11 a.m. and the 5,000-meter varsity races starting at 11:40 a.m.

The day-use area is off of Boise Road about 4 miles west of town.