PASCO — Four North Olympic Peninsula runners finished in the top 40 at the state cross country championships Saturday.
Two area girls finished in the top 38 in 2A and 1A races, while two area boys also finished high in the 2A and 1A runs.
Junior Elizabeth Stevenson of Port Angeles had the top finish overall by taking 30th place in 2A while Port Townsend’s Brittany Grant was 38th in 1A.
Sequim’s Adrian Clifford, a senior, had the best boys performance by taking 35th in 2A while Port Townsend’s Xavier Frank claimed 36th place in 1A.
Clifford took 35th out of 141 runners in 16:39.6 in the 5,000-meter race at Sun Willows Golf Course.
Clifford led the Sequim boys to ninth place with 235 points. Sehome won the boys race with 81 while Bellingham was second with 93.
The best four Sequim runners finished in the top 70 with sophomore Peter Ohnstad 54th in 17:00.6, freshman C.J. Daniels 65th in 17:06.7 and sophomore Mikey Cobb 70th in 17:10.3.
Sequim teammates Chris Jefko, a freshman, was 110th in 17:59.0 while freshman Jackson Oliver took 115th in 18:06.1 and junior Dylan Chatters was 117th in 18:10.6.
Port Angeles senior Kyle Tupper, meanwhile, took 125th in 18:17.2.
Frank, a senior, took 36th place out of 145 runners in 17 minutes, 17.4 seconds for the Redskins in the 1A race.
Teammate Ryan Clarke, a sophomore, captured 57th place in 17:32.0.
Forks freshman Alan Ensastegui, meanwhile, took 127th in 19:06.9.
Nisqually League’s Charles Wright Academy won the 1A boys championship with 87 team points, just beating Lakeside, which was runner-up with 90.
Senior Dillon Quintana of Mount Baker won the individual title with a time of 15:50.0, just nosing out senior Tom Bradley of Blaine, 15:50.8.
In girls action, Stevenson captured 30th place out of 141 runners on the 5,000-meter course in 20 minutes, 4 seconds.
Grant, meanwhile, claimed 38th place out of 140 1A runners in a time of 20:50.9.
The only other area 1A girls runner was Forks sophomore Kari Larson, who had an outstanding race by taking 57th place in 21:17.4.
Riverside of Chattaroy won the 1A girls team title with a score of 70, closely followed by Lakeside with 78. King’s took third place with 127.
Cedar Park Christian’s Sally Larson, a senior, took individual state championship honors with a time of 18:38.5.
Stevenson led the Roughriders to 13th place out of 16 teams with a total team score of 297.
Sehome of Bellingham dominated the 2A girls meet by winning the state title with 40 points, 78 points better than runner-up Bellingham with 118.
Olympic League champion North Kitsap was back in fourth place with a score of 139.
Sehome’s Emily Pittis, a sophomore, won the individual title in 18:17.7 while the best five Sehome runners finished in the top 19.
Port Angeles, meanwhile, had its top five runers finish in the top 104 with no seniors in that group.
Sophomore Dusti Lucas took 88th place (21:15.3), sophomore Annika Pederson was 92nd (21:23.3), freshman Willow Suess took 102nd (21:44.6) and junior Dasha Porter claimed 104th (21:53.8).
In addition, junior Bailey Reader was 123rd (22:55.6) and junior Jolene Millsap took 125th (23:01.3).
