PORT TOWNSEND — East Jefferson’s Joshua Yearian won the first Nisqually League cross-country meet of the year held at Camas Prairie Park in Port Townsend, leading his squad to a team win.
East Jefferson had four boys among the top eight runners.
Meanwhile, the East Jefferson girls finished second as a team, with two runners in the top 10 and all seven runners in the top 26.
Yearian won the boys’ two-mile meet with a time of 10 minutes, 25.75 seconds, taking first by 14 seconds over Carson Wintch of Klahowya.
Coming in fourth was his Rivals’ teammate Nico Errichetti in a time of 10:58.04. Noah Isenberg was sixth in a time of 11:10.87 and Dustin Hines was fourth at 11:21.85. Yearian, Errichetti and Isenberg are all juniors so they will be a powerful group in Nisqually League and district meets for the next two years.
East Jefferson tallied 47 points to second-place Bellevue Christian’s 65, Klahowya’s 68, Cascade Christian’s 72, Vashon’s 86 and Seattle Christian’s 179. Cross country is like golf, in which lower scores are better.
Other East Jefferson runners include Zeke Banks, 28th, 12:27.42; Louis Sanborn, 31st, 12:45.61; John Neville, 43rd, 13:36.39; Theo Fields, 59th, 15:14.41; Oliver Johnson, 72nd, 16:18.07; and Wisnu MacKenzie, 88th, 20:43.35.
The top runner for the girls was Hilina Taylor-Lenz, who finished seventh with a time of 13:52.43. Winning the girls’ race by a huge margin, more than a minute, was Krystin Timothy of Cascade Christian with a time of 12:16.59.
Coming in 10th was Michael Gregg of East Jefferson with a time of 14:14.87. Alli Applewhite, just a freshman, finished 17th with a time of 15:58.35, while teammate Leah Ferland was 19th in a time of 16:03.35. Charlotte Hines, another freshman, was 22nd in a time of 16:47.66 while Arden Moore, a hurdling specialist for the Rivals track team, was 25th in a time of 17:25.04. Finally, Clara Camp was 26th in a time of 17:25.29.
Vashon won the girls race with 37 points while East Jefferson had 73, just edging Klahowya with 78 and Cascade Christian with 79. Bellevue Christian had 89 points.
The East Jefferson runners will next compete at the Pacific Lutheran Invitational in Tacoma on Saturday.
