Division 3 Races:

            Abby Knight ran her first mile 5:45 while the next closest girl came through in 6:20. Knight took the title running away, ultimately winning in 19:33. Knight, the senior from Heritage High School in Washington, won by 1 minute and 21 seconds. She lead them to the team title in D3 by 35 points.

            Colby Gilbert in the men’s D3 race was a mirror image of Knight… until he got run down. Gilbert came through the first mile in 4:55. When he drastically fell off his pace, Alex Dillard took advantage, over came Gilbert in the second half of the race, and crossed the line in 16:08, 20 seconds before the straggling Gilbert. Northwest, a Washington 1A eventually took the team title with 147 points.

Division 2 Races:

            Alexis Fuller, a freshman from Union High School in Oregon, came through the mile in 5:45. Unlike Knight in the D3 race, Fuller sustained her pace, coming through 3k in 11:10 and eventually winning by 37 seconds, clocking a 10 second PR of 18:31. Fuller, who ran in the middle school race at Portland Meadows last year, said “I was really nervous at the beginning… I didn’t know if I should lead the race or not…then I just ran my race.” Needless to say, it worked out for her.

            The Men’s D2 race was the first close race of the day, with a pack coming through Mile 1 in 5:05. At 3k, Vista runner Steve Maher and Mountain View runner Connor Niemi came through shoulder to shoulder in 9:51. Still together at 4k, Connor Niemi made a big move over the last 500m, taking the title with a big kick in 16:31. Maher held on to second, finishing 7 seconds later in 16:38.

            Dougherty Valley, a Division IV California School, took the team titles in both the men’s and women’s D3 races. In the women’s, they won with 43 points, placing 4 runners in the top 12. In the men’s race, they won by 30 points over Oregon native 6A Aloha High School with 57 points. They placed 3 in the top 8 and 4 in the top 16.

Notes/JV:

            Important to note that between the Division 2 and Division 1 races, 7 JV races took place. During this time, the morning cloud cover blew off which drastically increased the temperature for the races in afternoon. Trainers lined the finish chute, runners from Aloha High School (who puts on the meet) filled water bottles for any athlete and two ambulances were on stand-by for any extreme cases of dehydration.

Notes from the JV Races:

-       The Sophomore Men’s race saw a sweep of the top 3 places by Warren High School in California. It turns out that two of them were all actually freshman, but were placed in the race for more competition… even though that competition turned out to be each other. They all finished within 20 seconds of each other and were alone for most of the last mile.

-       In the Junior/Senior Men’s race, Jesuit High School (who has a cross country team of almost 170 athletes) took the top 5 places. The first, Joshua Sealand, crossed in 16:54.

-       The Junior/Senior women’s race was all Jesuit again. They took the top 4 places and also had a finisher in 6^th. Euphemia Frie won in 20:22 and Katie Arndorfer, who with with Frie for most of the first mile and a half, faded to 21:00. This was arguably the hottest race of the day.

-       The Freshman Men’s race ended up being the fastest JV race of the day, with 3 boys dipping under 17:00. Michael Hammer took the win in 16:45, closely followed by two runners from Oregon’s Central Catholic. 

Division 1 Races:

            The Women’s race strung out quickly. Sheldon’s Gracie Todd  to the lead only 300m into the race and never relinquished it, coming through the mile in 5:43 with second place trailing by about 10 meters. Her leaded increased the entire race. She eventually won in 18:37. Mater Del went out strong and had an obvious lead at 1 mile, but fell off quickly at the second mile. Redmond of Oregon took control of the team race moving up well over the final mile and eventually taking the time title with 57 points, placing three in the top 8, less than 30 seconds apart.

            Gracie Todd after the race said that the heat was tough to run in, but that it didn’t effect her too much. She was one of the most put together finishers out there and was in need of no assistance after the race. Todd, like Alexis Fuller (winner of the D2 race) also ran in the middle school race last year. She said she placed 4^th last year in the in the 3k. 3 of the top 4 finishers in the D1 girls race were freshman.

            On the Men’s side, Capital Runner Alex Temple took the lead after the first mile (around 5:00). He opened up a large gap going into the final mile and although second place Roman Kirkov and teammate Tanner Sork (eventual 4^th place finisher) from Union worked together to close the gap, they simply ran out of course. Temple won in 16:06. Redondo Union took the title with 95 points.

Danner Championship Women’s

            With a tight pack at the start, Maddie Meyers from Northwest in Washington stayed close with a pack that started with 5 runner at the mile and eventually faded to just 4 at the two mile mark. Freshman phenom Jordyn Colter from Cherry Creek CO held on the longest but could not stay with the High School 2k Steeple record holder over the final mile. Meyers took the title, bettering Molly Grabill’s time last year by 4 seconds, crossing the line in 17:38.

At the mile, Redando Union had 4 in the top 20 and seemed to have control of the race. Over the final 2 miles, Redando faded and Northwest moved up. Both teams scored 103 points, but Northwest toppled the California School as their sixth runner beat their sixth runner. (Apologies for the ambiguity on that last stat, the results seem to be incomplete and only show Northwest’s top 2 runners).

Danner Championship Men’s

            The Men came through the first mile in a large pack at around 4:50. Jacob Smith pulled away over the next mile and came through the two mile in 9:50 with the pursuing pack, which included Korey Krotzer of Auburn Riverside, at about 10:12. While Smith faded and was almost run down, he still won in 15:10, Blankenbaker of Ramona took second in 15:12, and Krotzer faded to 15:24. Pre meet favorite Gig Harbor took the title with 126 points.