Pasco, WA - The 1A boys state cross country team title came down to a tie breaking scenario after scoring the first five runners from Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls and Cascade of Leavenworth.
Both teams finished with 113 points, but because Lakeside's sixth runner placed 92nd and Cascade's sixth runner placed 120th, Lakeside would claim the overall first place team title.
With the team win, the Lakeside Eagles won their seventh team title in program history at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco last Saturday, Nov. 3.
The previous season, the Eagles only had one individual who qualified for the state meet and was a senior in Nick Dewey, who placed 38th.
Nick Dewey was the only senior on the varsity team that had a majority of freshmen and sophomores, so their was a lack of varsity experience according to head coach Steve Olson.
"The guys were just young last year," said Olson. "After the summer of great training, we matured from last season. We knew we would be better this year."
Junior Gideon Swanson was the lone podium placer for the Eagles running 16:49.7 finishing in 13th.
Behind Swanson were three more runners from Lakeside finishing in the top 35. Junior Brayden Merrill (17:05) was 23rd, sophomore Lane Stockert (17:13) was 28th, and senior JJ Williamson (17:19.70) was 31st.
Also on the Eagles varsity team that raced was senior Matt Buckley (17:48.8) taking 67th, and sophomores Dawson Dunlop (17:57.7) and Trevor Crabtree in 92nd and 107th.
The Eagles were sitting at 11th after mile one and would progress up the standings throughout the race. They were fourth by the two mile, and than at the end they were atop with Cascade in first, but mentioned earlier, would go on to become state champions.
Olson said there wasn't any individuals who stood out the most, but felt it was a whole team effort that helped them win another state title.
"We have been racing well all season as a team. Besides getting our number one runner on the podium, everybody did their job and raced well, so that is how we won the state title."
During the regular season, the Eagles number one through five runners time spread was 35 seconds and the number one through seven runners time spread was 49 seconds.
"When you have a team that tight, it's actually easier to get the whole group faster because their running in a pack anyways. So, if one runner gets faster, the whole group gets faster. It was fun to watch them this year."
Charles Wright's Briejer Wins Individual 1A Title
Charles Wright's Adam Briejer (16:19.50) took home the individual 1A boys crown beating out Meridian's Nathan Schneider (16:27.9).
Schneider was out front early coming through the first mile in 5:08 with Briejer trailing behind him in third. Briejer wanted to keep it easier for mile one knowing he had a long race to go with more hills towards the end.
"I tried to stick behind relatively for the first mile," said Briejer. "Same with the second mile, but some people tried to push it more so that got me tired and I slowed down a little."
Knowing the course was slower and more difficult from last years, Briejer had to find something to put himself in position to win.
With about 800 meters to go, the junior from Charles Wright began to pick it up and broke away from the top group. This than led him to winning the individual title.
Briejer was Charles Wright's first individual champion since Peter Browne won the 1A state race back in 2005.
Other Results:
Second place Cascade top runners were Owen Bard (16:32.3) and Landon Davies (16:33) placing fourth and fifth.
Taking third as a team was Connell scoring 131 points. Their top runner was Nolan Chase running 16:49.70 for 15th place.
The Meridian Trojans took fourth scoring 140 points. They were led by Schneider's second place run and two other podium finishes from Abbas Theophilus (9th, 16:44.8) and Jaskaran Dhatt (11th, 16:47.2)
Granite Fall's Isaac Cortes was third overall running a time of 16:30.9.
The sixth and eighth individual place time spans were a total of .2 seconds.
Cashmere's Rob McManus (6th) and Zillah's Nate Mendoza (7th) both ran 16:44.2 and Seton Catholic's David Carrion (8th) ran 16:44.4.
For more results from the 1A boys state race, visit: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/147103/results/614812
Lovely blog thanks for sharing