JOYCE — Port Angeles’ Lauren Larson started this cross-country season right where she left off last year: in the front of the pack.
And to the dread of her opponents, she appears to have gotten faster from last year. A lot faster.
Sequim’s Riley Pyeatt and Larson’s teammate Kenzie DeLeon also started off in the same place, too, right on Larson’s heels among the top finishers.
Runners from 16 schools and from as far away as Washougal in southern Washington competed in the 42nd running of the Salt Creek Invitational at Salt Creek Recreation Area west of Port Angeles. More than 400 runners competed in high school varsity, junior varsity and open competitions.
Larson, last year’s girls’ Salt Creek Invitational champion, won the race for the second straight year in a time of 17 minutes, 31 seconds — 24 seconds ahead of Alyssa Becker of Klahowya. She showed she will be a force all season, managing to shave a full minute off her first-place time from last year.
Pyeatt and DeLeon both finished in the top seven (out of 77 varsity girls), with Pyeatt finishing third at 18:16 (which would have won last year) and DeLeon seventh at 18:40, 47 seconds better than her time from last year.
Larson won eight cross-country races last year, winning the Westside Classic 2A District meet and finishing fourth in the state as a sophomore.
Port Angeles, eighth at the 2A state championships last year with a young team, appears to have a strong girls’ team again, with seven girls finishing in the top 46 runners. The Roughriders’ Ella Holland was 29th (21:18), Kathryn Guttormsen 40th (21:57), Emma Weaver 42nd (22:19), Jenna McGoff 43rd (22:21) and Gracie Townsend 46th (22:39.).
Forks’ Madelyn Archibald finished 22nd with a time of 20:43.
Sequim did nearly as well as a team with three racers in the top 41 runners, all sophomores or freshmen. Freshman Anastasia Updike finished 34th with a time of 21:31 and Macy Cogburn was 41st with a time of 22:14.
Sequim’s Emily Silva was 63rd at 23:57 while Katelynn Glass was 74th at 27:23. Archibald’s Forks teammate Karen Ensastegui was 38th at 21:55.
Port Angeles finished fifth in team points with 111. Klahowya won the girls’ team compeititon with 67 points. Sequim was eighth with 171 points.
Among the boys, the Riders had a solid showing, with three runners in the top 17 and five in the top 35 out of 87 total runners. Port Angeles had the fifth-best team score with 109. Interlake won the team competition with 36 points.
Thomas Shaw led Port Angeles, finishing 12th with a time of 16:10. Right behind him was freshman Jack Gladfelter in 14th with a time of 16:13 and Adam Borde, who finished 17th at 16:22.
Naaman McGuffey came in 30th (17:03) and Joshua Gavin was 35th at 17:19. Langdon Larson was 50th at 17:43. Port Angeles coach Rodger Johnson said Shaw, Borde and McGuffey all set personal records at the Salt Creek course.
Wesley Camacho of Forks was 37th at 17:26, while his teammates William Perez was 44th (17:38) and Kevin Camacho-Roldan was 71st (19:02.80).
Among Sequim runners, with the team having to replace champion runner Murray Bingham, Eli Gish was the top finisher at 42nd with a time of 17:34. The Wolves’ Kaleb Needoba was 47th at 17:40, Koda Robinson was 51st (17:46), Jaxon Cogburn 61st (18:22), Owen Randall 69th (18:52), Charles Logan 72nd (19:05) and Theo McMurray 75th (19:24).
Winning the boys race was Isaac Cortes of Granite Falls with a time of 15:06, who was third last year at the state 1A cross-country championships.
The Port Angeles boys were fifth in team points with 109, while Interlake was first with 36 points. The Sequim girls came in 10th with 259 points.
In the open competition, Ian Christen won the men’s race with a time of 17:26. The best local finish was 19th by Damen Ringgold of Port Angeles at 20:14. Emilian Maldonado of Port Angeles was 36th (23:19).
For the women’s open competition, Keira Johnson won with a time of 19:27.63. The best local finish was by Savannah Meyer of Forks, who finished 12th with a time of 27.42.
Among junior varsity runners, the Port Angeles boys finished third as a team with 108 points. Lucas Gavin was 17th (18:14), Dane Deming 18th (18:32), Nathan Marple 20th (18:38) and Maxwell Baeder (18:49).
Among the junior varsity girls, Alizandra Baccus finished eighth (23:25) and Kaylee Helgeson finished ninth (23.26).
