PASCO - About a year ago, Colville's Alaina Stone Boggs came out running hard in the 1A state race putting herself in position to contend for the individual title with eventual champion, King's' Naomi Smith.
Unfortunately, Stone Boggs lost track of Smith after mile two when she began to break away from her and couldn't remain in contact.
Fast forward a year later, and it appeared to be a repeat of last year's run as Stone Boggs did the same exact thing, but this time she kept the pace consistent.
And as Stone Boggs kept the pace consistent, Smith didn't know how to respond to it, as if she were the underdog in the race and Stone Boggs was the favorite.
To end her senior season of high school cross country, Stone Boggs pulled off an incredible win over heavy favorite Smith in the 2019 1A girls state race for her first ever state title running a time of 17:39.6 on Saturday, November 9, at the Sun Willows Golf Course.
Coming from a small school, Stone Boggs felt being part of a sports team brought her closer to more people not only on her own team, but for other sports around the school too.
To win a state title means a lot to her she said, but it's more so for the community of Colville that been behind her back since the beginning.
"Sport have always been a big thing at my school as you were able to connect with more friends," said Stone Boggs.
"I just wanted to win this and bring this moment back. I've wanted this for so long, and I've appreciated being the underdog forever because achieving something like this makes it so much better."
Stone Boggs had the plan of going out in a little under six minutes for her first mile, but Smith, who finished in second in a time of 18:24, took it out strong and came across in 5:23.7. The Colville senior adjusted her plans and trailed Smith coming in at 5:24.5.
It wasn't necessarily a comfortable pace according to Stone Boggs at the beginning, especially when you look at last year's race between the two how Smith took off at the very end to gain full control of the race.
Going into mile two, the pace picked up quite a bit.
"When we went down the hill, I knew (Smith's) strategy was to go into the second mile faster," said Stone Boggs.
"She only picked it up for a little bit, and for that entire time I was with her, I knew I could take her. She would go up a hill and fade a little bit, and so I knew it was my day. When we came into that final lap, I had a good feeling about it."
As Stone Boggs made her way up on final turn before heading down hill to the finish, the left corner towards the finish line was going ballistic as they were cheering loud for her.
Because you are so mentally locked into a race, occasionally athletes will block the outside noises from fans, but these one were not just any other fans, these were family members and loved ones of Stone Boggs as they couldn't believe what she had just accomplished.
To have support like that means more than winning the race for Stone Boggs.
"I couldn't do this without them," said Stone Boggs on the support of her family.
"They are always the first one to congratulate me and everything they say to me is far more important than what any other person would say. My parents, and everyone around me, told me numerous times that I could do this and they just have so much faith in me."
Although Colville couldn't make it as a team, the love and support they showed throughout the entire season towards their No. 1 runner got her to where she wanted to be.
Also getting on the podium individually were Seton Catholic's Lara Carrion and Sara Cordova placing third and 10th in a times of 18:50.5 and 19:13.7.
South Whidbey's Kaia Swegler Richmond was sixth running 19:02.4 and Goldendale's Ellie Rising placed ninth in a time of 19:07.
Third place finisher from last year, Riverside's Lizzy Shaw, was 11th in 19:15 and Meridian's Kayla Aalpoel followed her placing 12th in 19:19.7.
Cashmere's Sydney Smith (19:20.2), Lynden Christian's Maya Ewing (19:23.4), and Okanogan's Lexi Ladoux (19:33.6) were 13th, 15th, and 16th.
From a team perspective, the Deer Park Stags defeated NEA opponent Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls for the team title by a score of 98-107. This is the program's first state title win in school history.
Adele Schick took 19th overall as the Stags top runner with a time of 19:42.9, while Layne Lathrop was 23rd with a time of 19:49.50.
Andrea Loos (26th, 19:51.1), Marion George (30th, 20:09.7), and Savannah Story (46th, 20:37.4) helped the Stags in scoring, while Ali Dodgen (80th, 21:30.3) and Makenzie Bates (120th, 22:46.5) rounded up the team.
Second place Lakeside was led by none other than Madelyn Buckley and Matise Mulch, who were fifth and seventh running times of 19:00.9 and 19:05.9.
Natasha Lewis and Roselynn Martin placed seventh and 14th in 19:05.8 and 19:23.1 for third place La Center, who scored 121 points.
Klahowya's Alyssa Becker took fourth running 18:59.5 helping her team to a fourth place team finish with 135 points.
For more results from the 2019 1A Girl's Cross Country State Championships, visit: http://wiaa.com/subcontent.aspx?SecID=1147
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