JOYCE — Port Angeles’ Gracie Long knew she had one last chance to win the Salt Creek Cross Country Invitational.
And a runner from 3A Interlake wasn’t going to make it easy on her.
Long and Ellie Erikson from Interlake ended up having a personal duel on the final lap of the race held at Salt Creek Park, with Long a couple of paces behind Erikson. Long passed Erikson on the stairs heading into the woods then had to kick the final 100 yards up a hill to the finish line to fend her off.
Long, a Roughrider senior who finished 11th at the state 2A meet last year, wasn’t able to compete last year because of a sore knee. She won with a time of 18 minutes, 0.72 seconds, two seconds ahead of Erikson. The next runner was 25 seconds behind the pair who pulled away in the final few hundred yards.
“I knew if I was going to make my move, it had to be there [at the stairs],” Long said.
“It feels really, really good [to win at Salt Creek]. This is one of my favorite meets because of the scenery,” she said. “There’s a lot of really good runners here, they push me hard. It was mentally challenging. My mind wanted to give up.”
Long’s Riders teammate Lauren Larson also had a solid race, finishing fifth with a time of 19:10.19. Forks’ Enid Ensastegui finished sixth with a time of 19:11.19.
The Port Angeles and Forks girls’ teams both had a strong showing, as did the Sequim boys. The Port Anglees girls finished second out of 11 schools with 63 points to Interlake’s 55. Forks was fourth with 105 points.
Out of 96 runners in the girls’ race, Forks and Port Angeles combined with eight finishers in the top 21. Forks’ Marissa Bailey finished 14th, Port Angeles freshman Kathryn Guttormsen finished 16th in her first varsity race, Forks’ Melisa Galindo was 17th and Rider teammates Ellie Hiigel and Ella Holland were 20th and 21st.
For the boys, Sequim came in fourth out of 11 schools as Interlake dominated winning five out of the first seven slots. The Wolves’ Murray Bingham had the top local time, coming in eighth with a time of 15:58.76. His teammate Liam Byne finished 17th.
The top Port Angeles runners were Gabriel Long (Gracie’s brother) and Thomas Shaw, who finished 25th and 26th (out of 92 runners) side-by-side.
Winner of the boys’ race was Matthew Roberts of Interlake.
A total of 478 runners competed in varsity boys and girls categories, junior varsity and open.
Winning the open men’s category was Jason Weiss of Bainbridge and winning the women’s open category was Erika Hettick of Olympic College, who pushed herself so hard, she had to be physically helped out of the finish line area.
Port Angeles’ Alisandra Baccus was excited to win the junior varsity girls’ race.
“I’ve never won anything before in my life,” Baccus said. “I’ve been running a long time.”
She was hoping her performance would be good enough to get bumped up to the Riders girls’ varsity squad.
Winning the boys’ junior varsity was Carter Blunden of Interlake.
40th Salt Creek Cross Country Invitational
Saturday, September 16, Salt Creek Recreation Area
Boys varsity
Team scores — Interlake, first, 22; Bainbridge, second, 48; Nathan Hale, third, 68; Sequim, fourth, 141; Granite Falls, fifth, 150; Klahowya, sixth, 170; Port Angeles, seventh, 190; North Kitsap, eighth, 193; Cedar Park Christian (Bothell), ninth, 267; Auburn, 10th, 280; Olympic, 11th, 311; North Mason, 12th, 338; Bremerton, 13th, 372.
Murray Bingham, Sequim, eighth, 15:58.76; Liam Byrne, Sequim, 17th, 16:36.93; Gabriel Long, PA, 25th, 16:59.94; Thomas Shaw, PA, 26th, 17:00.19; Jazen Bartee, Sequim, 36th, 17:34.39; Alec Shingleton, Sequim, 38th, 17:36.53; Luis Perez, Forks, 42nd, 17:46.29; Riley Martin, Sequim, 43rd, 17:47.28; Adam Borde, PA, 45th, 17:50.58; Aj Fischer, PA, 48th, 17:56.56; Cameron Butler, PA, 49th, 17:56.95; Eli Gish, Sequim, 52nd, 17:58.68; Logan Tyson, PA, 58th, 18:04.98; Matthew Larson, Forks, 59th, 18:06.20; Aron Trubow, PA, 60th, 18:07.29; Diego Hernandez, Forks, 70th, 18:34.63; Erik Christiansen, Sequim, 71st, 18:36.75; Wesley Camacho, Forks, 75th, 19:02.37.
Girls varsity
Team scores — Interlake, first, 55; Port Angeles, second, 63; Bainbridge, third, 80; Forks, fourth, 105; Nathan Hale, fifth, 134; North Kitsap, sixth, 136; Klahowya, seventh, 151; North Mason, eighth, 223; Cedar Park Christian (Bothell), ninth, 230; Olympic, 10th, 261; Sequim, 11th, 320.
Gracie Long, PA, first, 18:00.72; Lauren Larson, PA, fifth, 19:10.19; Enid Ensastegui, Forks, sixth, 19:11.19; Marissa Bailey, Forks, 14th, 20:27.33; Kathryn Guttormsen, PA, 16th, 20:43.55; Melisa Galindo, Forks, 17th, 20:45.15; Ellie Hiigel, PA, 20th, 20:53.24; Ella Holland, PA, 21st, 20:55.77; Madelyn Archibald, Forks, 28th, 21:18.20; Jada Cargo-Acosta, PA, 32nd, 21:35.99; Karen Ensastegui, Forks, 44th, 22:13.60; Chelsea Biciunas, Forks, 55th, 23:49.99; Kayleen Bailey, Forks, 58th, 23:57.09; Vita Olson, Sequim, 61st, 24:07.53; Emily Silva, Sequim, 65th, 24:57.64; Kathalie Arrequin, Sequim, 72nd, 27:35.79; Telicia Busby, Sequim, 73rd, 28:16.31; Busby Maria, Sequim, 75th, 28:21.02.
Women’s Open
Local Finishers
Sylvia Torres, Forks, 12th, 24:33.07; Savannah Meyer, Forks, 23rd, 26:33.55; Sage Baar, Forks, 25th, 26:55.50; Aurora Mackley, PA, 35th, 28:55.13; Macy Luong, Forks, 36th, 28:55.34; Anna Daly, PA, 42nd, 29:50.15.
In the boys varsity race at the Salt Creek Invitational Sequim’s Murray Bingham was the top boy finishers for area runners coming in eighth place. (Dave Logan/Peninsula Daily News)
