Langley, WA - Top-ranked Sehome boys scored 56 points to go on to win their fifth consecutive District One 2A cross country team title at South Whidbey High School this past Saturday, Oct. 27, and will advance to the state meet in Pasco, Washington.
Junior Jacob Alexander ran 16 minutes, and 49 seconds to finish in third and senior Reed Smith ran 16 minutes, and 54.34 seconds to finish in sixth as the Mariners top runners.
Senior Lucas Cunningham (17:03.57) and sophomore Roman Schroyer (17:06.34) were Sehome's third and fourth runners, while also placing in the top 20 as individuals.
Head coach Kevin Ryan thought the meet went really well for his team and were able to qualify for state as a team again for another year.
"We came in a very conservative game plan," said Ryan. "We didn't want to run our state race at this meet. Our top five carried the race plan and ran really well. Got some work to do with our sixth and seventh runners, but very happy we were able to move to next week."
Max Gargano was Sehome's fifth runner placing 24th, and Dominik Reimann and Coleman Brummel were Sehome's sixth and seventh runners placing 36th and 44th. Reimann and Brummel will run at state because of team qualifications.
With this district title win, Sehome goes into the state meet on a hot streak after having won their conference meet and placing the highest out of all the 2A schools at the Nike Hole in the Wall Invitational this past month.
For the meets they run before postseason, coach Ryan says the key for all their races is to learn something from every one of them and to improve for the next one.
"We don't really look at momentum, we look more at are we learning something every week. If we are and put that all together with what we have learned the last several weeks, hopefully we can take that knowledge put it all together at state."
Sehome looks to win their programs 10th team state title, seventh consecutive in a row, this upcoming Saturday. Standing in their way are Washougal, Pullman, and Liberty of Issaquah. They are just some of the few top ranked teams at the 2A level.
Liberty finished second as a team at this years district meet behind Sehome scoring 80 points. Mountlake Terrace and Sammamish advance to state as a team as they placed third and fourth.
Terrace's own Alex Williams took home the individual district crown running a time of 16:34.48.
Williams talked with his teammates after the race about how the race did start off slower than usual, which then led to them moving along faster as the race went deeper.
"Going up the hill, that's when everyone started to go," Williams said. "There was a Cedarcrest kid who took off, which scared us a little bit. But once we got to the top, we all went after him. Than going down the hill, that is when I knew I wanted to win this, so I hunted down the Cedarcrest kid. We eventually switch places and I just took over from there."
Liberty's Luke Knoblich was second behind Williams with a time of 16:40.77, and William's teammate, Jaden Lofrese, was fourth running 16:51.60.
Isaiah Ellis (16:55.84) from Lynden placed seventh for the Lions and Sammamish's Hale Behan (16:57.58) was eighth for the Totems.
Also from Liberty finishing in the top 10 was Rory McClelland (16:58.7) in ninth and Alexander Hartford (16:59.01) in 10th.
Twenty-eight individuals qualified for the state meet since a total of four teams are going to Pasco.
Sehome, Liberty, Sammamish, Mountlake Terrace, and numerous individuals will race this Saturday at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco at 1:30 p.m..
Qualified Teams (including their runners):
Sehome - Jacob Alexander, Reed Smith, Lucas Cunningham, Roman Schroyer, Max Gargano, Dominik Reimann, Coleman Brummel
Liberty (Issaquah) - Luke Knoblich, Rory McClelland, Alexander Hartford, Mehul Krishna, Mason Antin, Arne Grette, Aiden Holmes
Mountlake Terrace - Alex Williams, Jaden Lofrese, Josh Beam, Ivan Moulton, Tymothy Harris, Allen Hutmacher, Kai Hinch
Sammamish - Hale Behan, Graham Frangooles, Thomas Johnson, Tyler Thompson, Kyle Wasierski, Ethan Evers, Nate Oppfelt
Qualified Individuals:
Bellingham - Caleb Schmotzer, Jenson Kintzele
Cedarcrest - Brennan LeBlanc, Ryan LaTurner
Lakewood - Alex Jensen
Lynden - Isaiah Ellis, Tate Hutchins, Hans Tamminga, Rafe Wolfisberg
Sedro-Woolley - Rafe Holz, Lachlan Boyd
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