Dennler leads Cardinal girls to state XC

PASCO – Ever since landing in Medical Lake back in the fall of 2010, Gene Blankenship has helped guide Cardinal distance runners on the road to Pasco and the state cross country championships.

And while the Cardinals did not earn podium finishes on Nov. 9 at Sun Willows Golf Course, the path appears paved for the future - even for soon-to-be 83-year-old head coach Gene Blankenship.

Led by junior Kaylee Dennler, the Cardinal girls landed a 10th-place team finish with 244 points behind Cedar Park Christian at 102.

Dennler finished fourth overall in the individual standings in a time of 19:08.60. Montesano's Haley Schweppe had the winning time of 18:44.7 over the 5,000-meter course.

"Kaylee ran a really good race," Blankenship said. "She broke the school record by two seconds."

Her feat was noticed by others including University High's long-time head coach and noted distance runner Bob Barbero who Blankenship once coached with.

"He came to tell me how good he thought she looked," Blankenship said.

Dennler also earned the Bloomsday Roadrunners trip to California for the Foot Locker race.

The boys race was also won by Cedar Park Christian with 49 points with Northeast A League teams Colville (6th/193) and Lakeside (8th/195) landing in the top-10.

The Cardinals' Nakai Ornelas was 13th at 16:32.7 behind the 15:28.4 of Annie Wright Academy's Will Carroll. Medical Lake did not qualify a team for the event.

"The competition is just getting really tough," Blankenship has observed. "The west side, especially on the 1A, is starting to get a little bit better."

Five Cardinal girls - Dennler and Katelyn Hoffer excluded - all set personal records in their race. Three ML boys, not including Ornelas, also had PRs.

See the complete list of Medical Lake finishers elsewhere in this issue. While podium placement eluded Medical Lake girls this year, that may not be the case down the road where there has just one senior, Hannah Luzier, among the seven who ran.

"Everybody that ran that wasn't a senior will be back," Blankenship said.

And he's expecting a transfer student for 2025 but is not able to comment until they actually enroll.

The flip side exists for the ML boys where of the four competitors, three are seniors. Mercury Bergquist, a freshman and in mythology a running messenger, will be a notable part of the new foundation.

Blankenship has been connected to the three seniors - including Ornelas, Garrett Montney and Hector Gomez -for a half-dozen years dating back to when he also ran the middle school program.

"Those three kids are going to be missed," he said. "All three of them have run at state for all four years."

Blankenship calls the process ahead one of "reloading" vs. "rebuilding" as both teams feature a wealth of young athletes.

Those members of the team will emerge themselves into the off-season training program that Blankenship is careful to point out is all done on the up-and-up.

"We avoid everything that would be considered illegal," Blankenship affirmed.

Medical Lake has had a string of immense cross-country success with boys' titles in 2013, 2014, 2017 and runners-up in 2015 and 2016 as well as a second during the COVID-19 virtual season in 2021.

The Cardinal girls were second in 2021 and third in 2022.