PASCO — With the only school at state with two girls in the top 10, the young Port Angeles cross-country team finished eighth at the Class 2A State Cross-Country championships at Sun Willows Golf Course on Saturday.
Roughriders sophomore Lauren Larson finished fourth, improving on her 10th-place finish as a freshman. She also shaved 19 seconds off her time from last year with a finish time of 19 minutes, 4.2 seconds.
Her teammate Kynzie DeLeon finished 10th with a time of 19:26.4. This was DeLeon’s first year running cross country, though she is a distance runner in track for the Riders. The one-two punch of Larson and DeLeon was the best at state. The only school that came close was Ellensburg, which had one runner finish third and another finish 14th.
Sequim freshman Riley Pyeatt finished 13th with a time of 19:35.80.
The Port Angeles girls finished eighth out of 16 teams with 186 team points. They improved on last year’s ninth-place team finish and 195 points despite having no seniors on this year’s team. The 2017 team had seniors Gracie Long and Madelyn Dougherty who both finished in the top 42 and are now running track and cross country in college.
The Rider girls had five runners in the top 95. Kaylee Helgeson was 88th with a time of 21:57.70, Ella Holland was 92nd with a time of 22:01.00 and Kathryn Guttormsen was 95th with a time of 22:03.20.
Jenna McGoff was 123rd at 22:50.10 and Emma Weaver 140th at 23:34.00. There were 162 runners in the race.
The Riders’ team is very young with two freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors, so the entire team may be back next year. In particularly good news for Larson, a sophomore, is that two out of the three girls ahead of her in this race were seniors. The one junior ahead of Larson only beat her by 10 seconds.
West Valley of Spokane and Bellingham won the team competition with each school tallying 118 points. West Valley tied for the best showing despite its best runner coming in 23rd.
Class 1A girls
In the 1A girls’ race, Port Townsend’s Anika Avelino had the best showing, coming in 54th with a time of 21:02.90. Chimacum’s Rachel Matthes came in 67th with a time of 21:28.70 and Forks’ Madelyn Archibald was 74th with a time of 21:42.80.
No other North Peninsula school had enough runners at state for a team score.
Boys races
In the 2A boys race, Sequim’s Murray Bingham had the same placement as Sequim’s Pyeatt had in the girls’ race. He finished 13th with a time of 16:28.90, improving dramatically on his 76th-place finish from 2017, shaving more than 40 seconds off his state time from last year. His teammates Liam Byrne finished 78th at 17:27.70 and Jazen Bartee was 133rd at 18:16.20.
Port Angeles had a full boys’ team, finishing 16th. The Roughriders were led by Thomas Shaw, who came in 87th with a time of 17:37.70. Gabriel Long finished 111th with a time of 17:56.70, Cameron Butler 116th at 17:58.70, Adam Borde 142nd at 18:31.90, Logan Tyson 161st at 19:13.20, Joshua Gavin 162nd at 19:15.50 and Aj Fischer 163rd at 19:32.30.
In the 1A boys race, Port Townsend’s Nathan Cantrell had the best area showing, finishing 19th with a time of 17:01.50. His teammate Gabe Petrick was 33rd at 17:24.10, while Seamus Fraser was 94th at 17:59.90 and Kincaid Gould was 114th at 18:25.20.
Forks had two runners at state. Colton Duncan finished 139th with a time of 19:10.90 and Wesley Camacho was 149th at 19:26.90.
