With no state meet this season, the Arlington boys are out to prove they belong at the top of the cross country mountain in Washington and did so in their season debut.
Get to know Roosevelt's Claire Archer, the fastest girl in Washington to this point of the season.
Here is the week 5 recap of top individual and team performances from around the state this past week in high school cross country.
Boys
Performance of the Week: Cashmere's Rob McManus
One week after his season debut, Cashmere's Rob McManus picked up his second win of the season over four-year 1A rival Landon Davies of Cascade Leavenworth.
The two have had great races in the past in cross country and track, but this might have been the most impressive outing of them all by McManus as he ran a personal best time of 12:50.7 for the 4,000-meter race.
McManus is the only athlete this year that has broken 13 minutes for this distance, and even though he runs for a 1A school, he is among the top runners for all classifications.
Race of the Week: Jackson's Brenden Charbeneau and Jordan Hansen
When you talk about really talented dynamic duo runners Washington has this season, Jackson's Brenden Charbeneau and Jordan Hansen belong in that conversation.
In their season debut versus Lynnwood, Charbeneau and Hansen finished first and second in the 4,000-meter race running 13:31.5 and 13:31.9 to lead the Timberwolves to a 35 points win over the Royals 15-50.
The two athletes who are so similar in training, work ethic, and could finish 1-2 at the state meet are Charbeneau and Hansen, and it showed when they finished four-tenths of a second from each other.
Team of the Week: Arlington Eagles
The Arlington Eagles made their debut this weekend versus Marysville-Pilchuck scoring a perfect 15 points and had all eight of their varsity runners finish in front of the Tomahawk's varsity No. 1.
Four of the five returning 2019 state participants went first through fourth, led by Vincent Loftis, who ran a three-mile personal best time of 14:50 to win his first race of 2021.
Isaiah Lowry was second running 15:22, Quincy Fankhauser was third running 15:37, and Brandon Moore was fourth running 16:18.
With no Aiden Emerson racing, Kiyoshi Hall was the Eagles fifth runner finishing in a time of 17:02.
Meet of the Week: Onalaska Loggers vs. Rainier Mountaineers
With four schools competing in team scoring, this meet at Morton White Pass had scoring that was all over the place, especially between Onalaska and Rainier.
Rainier's Ryan Doidge and Dylan Davis finished second and third running 18:26.25 and 18:40.72, followed by Onalaska's Lethon Fitch in fourth running 19:21.95.
Then it was every other runner for Onalaska to round out the top 10 with Trevor Blair (19:28.83) placing sixth, Jacob Russon (19:57.66) placing eighth, and Devon Wright (20:17.97) placing 10th.
The Loggers would take soul control over scoring when their fifth through seventh runners finished ahead of Rainier's fifth as Riley Carter (20:48.72) was 14th, Ben Russon (21:08.69) was 16th, and Isaac Fitch (21:14.53) was 19th.
Rainier's Zach Coleman (19:45.47, 7th), Thomas Ronne (20:25.83, 13th), and Benjamin Johnson (21:33.72) rounded the top five for team scoring.
Other Top Performances:
- Camas's Evan Jenkins returned to racing with a season debut win running 15:56.5 for the 5k race against Battle Ground.
- Klahowya's Alex Oathout breaks the 10-minute barrier for a 2-mile cross country race for the first time in his career running a personal best time of 9:56 against Olympic.
- Steilacoom's Sawyer Dagan runs 15:49.3, four seconds off his 5k personal best time, in his win against Orting.
- Solid opening race from Kamiak's Carp Mukai running 14:01 for the 2.7-mile race against Glacier Peak.
- Selah's Cooper Quigley wins his first Sunfair Invite title running 16:04.99 for the challenging 3-mile course.
- North Central's Leif Swanson starts off with a win against Lewis & Clark and University running a 5k time of 16:20.
- Mount Si's Paul Talens, who just signed with Gonzaga University, opens up with a win running 10:23 for the 2-mile mark against Issaquah.
- Bethel's Cameron McCann with another solid outing running 15:45 to win the 5,000-meter race against Puyallup.
- Kamiakin's Isaac Teeples extends his winning streak to three running a winning 5k time of 15:27.27, the fastest mark this season, against Chiawana and Hermiston.
Girls
Performance of the Week: Roosevelt's Claire Archer
Roosevelt has produced some talented runners over the last decade, such as Lucy Cheadle and Grace Hodge. Still, over the weekend, a newcomer has placed herself in the conversation after her first high school race.
Claire Archer had never competed in high school cross country until this season but had been running club as she competes with Club Northwest.
Last fall she ran a 19:24 5k time to finish second in a Lincoln Park time Trial, and three days later ran 11:21 to win the 2-mile time trial at Magnuson Park.
In her first race with Roosevelt, she became the new school record holder in the 5k and has the fastest time in the state so far running 18:03 to win her dual race against Nathan Hale.
Race of the Week: Cascade Leavenworth's Lauren Muscutt and Zoe McDevitt
With Lauren Muscutt joining the Cascade cross country team this fall, this adds a talented athlete to a team that only had two runners qualify for the 2019 1A State Cross Country Meet, and one of them was Zoe McDevitt.
Muscutt, a member of the 2019 1A 1,600-meter relay championship team for Cascade, made her cross country debut with less than a two-second win over her teammate McDevitt who ran 15:58, running 15:56.6 for the 4,000-meter race.
Muscutt's and McDevitt's performances helped the Kodiaks secure the team win, scoring 42 points to Royal's 66 points.
Team of the Week: Seton Catholic Cougars
Seton Catholic has proven to be one of Washington's top teams, but they hadn't raced with a full varsity squad until this last week.
In their first meet competing with each other, Alexis Leone and Lara Carrion finished first and second running 18:16 and 18:26 for the 5,000-meter race to lead the Cougars to a perfect 15 points against La Center and Castle Rock.
Along with Leone, the freshman quartet continues to impress for Seton Catholic as Sara Cordova (19:20, 3rd), Avery Garrison (19:29, 4th), and Virginia Carrion (19:54, 5th) all came away with new personal best marks.
According to the Hypothetical meet on Athletic.net, Seton Catholic is the No. 1 ranked team in the entire state with 85 points.
Even though it's early on in the season and not every team has raced to this point so far, this is quite the accomplishment for a varsity team made up of four first-year students and one sophomore.
Meet of the Week: Mount Si Wildcats vs. Issaquah Eagles
When you talk about classic rivalries in Washington that always deliver, it's the Mount Si girls versus the Issaquah girls.
Mount Si pulled off a two-point win over Issaquah 27-29 in this year's match-up led by Addison Craig and Makaylee Jensen, placing first and second individually running 13:28 and 13:40 for the two-mile race.
The Wildcats secured the win with Craig, Jensen, and Ravenna Vaden (13:52, 4th) placing in three of the top four spots, but Issaquah managed to get all five of their runners in front of Mount Si's No. four led by Julia Ryan (13:40, 3rd) and Mary Jane Harig (13:59, 5th) to make the scoring even more competitive.
But the difference-maker goes back to Mount Si's top two finishing first and second individually. In a dual like this, finishing in the top three with more runners is crucial in the outcome for teams.
Other runners scoring for the Wildcats were Chloe Hammer (14:26, 9th) and Grace Lansberry (15:09, 11th).
Other Top Performances:
- Seattle Prep's Lily O'Donoghue-McDonald runs an in-season personal best 5k time of 18:16.21 in her season debut against Ballard.
- Hockinson's Allyson Peterson run an 18 second personal best 5k time of 18:08.7 to win her second race of the year against Mark Morris and RA Long.
- Kamiak's Emma Arceo runs 17:27 to win the 2.7-mile race in her racing debut over Glacier Peak.
- Snohomish's Ellie Baxter starts her senior year with a win running 12:18 for the 2-mile race against Stanwood.
- Bellarmine's Ella Borsheim continues to impress in her junior year with another PR and another win running 14:11.86 for the 4,000-meter race against Peninsula.
- Issaquah's Julia David-Smith wins her first and only Sunfair Invite title running 17:53.48 for the tough 3-mile race.
- Holy Names begins the season with a win over Eastside Catholic scoring 15 points led by Maisie McManus (19:14, 1st), Christina Crow (19:17, 2nd), and Sarah Mirkin (19:51, 3rd).
- Washougal's young team moves win streak to four with their win over Ridgefield and Columbia River led by freshman phenom Elle Thomas running 17:50.6 for the 4,500-meter race.
- Kennewick's Macy Marquardt runs her second consecutive 5k personal best time by 12 seconds in 18:41.9 for her win against Southridge and Walla Walla.
Comments