BREMERTON — Port Angeles junior Jack Gladfelter and Sequim senior Riley Pyeatt each won their respective divisions in an eight-team Olympic League cross country meet Wednesday at Bremerton Middle School.
Gladfelter led the way on the 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) course with a time of 16 minutes, 55.8 seconds as the Roughrider boys claimed the overall team victory with 36 points after placing four runners in the top 10.
Gladfelter’s time was 36.1 seconds ahead of Bainbridge runner-up Alexander Miller.
Junior Langdon Larson finished sixth in 18:05, Maxwell Baeder placed eighth in 18:21.6 and Josh Gavin was ninth in 18:25.5.
“The boys put in a lot of summer miles together and really push and encourage each other every day at practice,” coach Rodger Johnson said. “I’m excited to see how well they can do this season.”
Sequim finished seventh overall and was led by sophomore Colby Ellefson, who placed 23rd (19:13).
In the girls race, Pyeatt led the Wolves to a third-place finish, behind Bainbridge (35 points) and North Kitsap (57).
Pyeatt completed the course in 19:25.3, just under 35 seconds faster than second-place Salix Wartes-Kahl of North Kitsap.
Sequim sophomore Kaitlyn Bloomenrader placed eighth in 22:19.1 and junior Anastasia Updike was 17th in 23:49.6.
Port Angeles didn’t field enough runners to compile a team score.
Freshman Zakara Braun was the top Riders runner in 24:51.8.
“On the girl’s side, we have a lot of new runners with a ton of potential,” Johnson said.
Sequim and Port Angeles are part of the 13 teams set to run in Saturday’s 43rd Salt Creek Invitational at Salt Creek County Park near Joyce. East Jefferson and Forks athletes also are expected to run.
Our first regular season meet was hosted by Bremerton on a new, challenging course with lots of small hills and sharp corners. The athletes were all happy to be competing again.
Our boys team had a great first race, with both the first finisher overall – 11th grader Jack Gladfelter, and first place as a team. See official results here:
https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=197931&show=all
Girls Soccer
Bellevue Christian 5, East Jefferson 2
REDMOND — Kaylen Pray’s goal a minute into the second half knotted the score at 2-2 for the Rivals, but East Jefferson tired late and fell on the road to the Vikings.
“I knew they would be pretty good,” East Jefferson coach Rob Cantley said of Bellevue Christian.
“We scored first, then went down 2-1 at halftime before we got another one to tie it up. But about 20 minutes from the end, we really ran out of gas. Having played Klahowya on Monday night, we were a little tired, and we were a little threadbare with three subs and a couple of varsity girls out with injuries or not enough practices.”
Sophomore Iris Mattern notched the Rivals’ first goal.
“She collected a loose ball and hit a banger from about 25 yards out to the lower left corner to give us a great start to the game,” Cantley said.
“Iris is kind of our star. She’s part of the Elite Development program with Pac Northwest.”
East Jefferson equalized right out of the halftime break.
“Kaylen Pray finished one time off a really great assist by Clare Johnson,” Cantley said.
“The passing aspect of the play really stood out.”
Cantley said forward Ava Shiflett was “the heart of everything and trying to get things going” all game long.
And he praised senior captain Savanna Hoffman for her part.
“We lost both goalies to graduation and Savanna volunteered to fill in despite never having played the position before,” Cantley said. “She made some good saves and is really doing well with her attitude and leading from the back.”
East Jefferson (0-2) hosts Coupeville at 11 a.m. Saturday.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsula dailynews.com.
