Team runs competes at ‘Mook Invite’
MEDICAL LAKE – Even though each cross country course is different, Medical Lake head coach Gene Blankenship can find ways to make comparisons and show his runners continue to make progress each week.
Blankenship rewarded his varsity runners with a trip to Tillamook, Oregon to compete in the “Mook Invitational” that drew teams from across the nation.
“The times were great, the placements were not,” Blankenship said. “This is a big time meet, I swear, with teams from Michigan, Alaska and Hawaii, some of the top teams in Idaho and good teams from Washington.”
Blankenship was familiar with the area and the meet organizer following several years doing a summer camp there.
The Cardinal girls finished 15th (379 points) behind Gonzaga Prep’s 77 in the 22-team field. The boys 396 points trailed Sunset of Portland at 73 out of 24 schools. “We’re a little over our head with the competition,” Blankenship said.
Regardless, Blankenship said, “We had significant improvements from our previous race.”
Top individual girl for ML was Kaylee Dennler who got to her goal of cracking 20 minutes in the 5,000 meters with a 19:00.80.
She was in ninth place behind G-Prep’s Erin McMahon at 18:26.40.
Nakai Ornelas paced the Cardinal boys, finishing 17th in 16:27.60 behind Clayton Wilson from Siuslaw with a 15:28.60. There were 194 boys’ runners and 169 girls in those respective fields.
The Cardinals have this weekend off.
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