ARLINGTON — The Arlington boys cross country team knows exactly what it can do.
Now.
A year after surprising their competitors — and themselves a little — the Eagles are once again aiming for the state meet. However, this time Arlington wants to top last year’s fourth-place finish.
“They always say reach out as far as you can, and if you miss the moon you’ll hit the stars. We nearly hit the moon. We were four stars away,” said senior Tylor Sullivan. “It’s why we have this goal now to reach state again.”
While it may have been surprising, the success wasn’t an accident for Arlington, which has a key group of seniors this season that has been running together and impressing Eagles head coach Mike Shierk since they were freshmen.
“These are some talented kids,” Shierk said. “We started talking about (getting to state) and they believed. We used to show up for morning workouts and we could hear them out here at 6:30 and they’re singing ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,’ the Bon Jovi song. They just unite and click together. They’re just tight friends.”
Shierk remembers after the group’s sophomore year of track he informed the runners’ parents that before long they would be headed to Pasco for state cross country.
“I remember going up to the parents and saying, ‘Book your hotel rooms for state. We’re going,’” Shierk said. “We didn’t see them being fourth-placers, but we saw they were going to make a big jump.”
And that’s exactly what Arlington did. After winning the Wesco 3A North league meet, the Eagles followed with a district title over perennial power Glacier Peak.
Taking down the Grizzlies was another in a long line of goals Arlington made for the season.
“At the beginning of the season, our goal was just to make it to the state meet,” said senior Nate Beamer. “As we went through, we saw the state rankings. The whole season our main goal was to beat Glacier Peak and we ended up getting them at the district meet.”
“I knew that we were a really good team, but I didn’t know that we were at the level that we were,” said junior Kevin Mullin. “After we started winning stuff it was really incredible to see how well we all worked together and how well we did at (the district and league meets).”
The victory over Glacier Peak clinched a state berth for Arlington, which saw Beamer finish eighth overall in the final meet at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. Michael Barene, Matt Taylor, Zachary Cushman, Pieter Andrews, Eric Acero and Caleb Smith also got a taste of the state course.
With Smith — who now runs at Northwest University in Kirkland — the only senior last season for Arlington, the Eagles are once again poised to make a deep run.
“Fourth place at state, you didn’t even really realize (how big it was) until weeks later,” said Barene, who finished 56th overall at the state meet. “It’s like, ‘Wow. We actually got fourth in state.’ That was an amazing feeling.”
“One of the biggest things we took away from last season was a huge vote of confidence,” added senior Jacob Fankhauser. “We realized we could accomplish what we set out to do and it was finally tangible. There’s finally a real trophy sitting in front of us.”
The Eagles’ team chemistry is obvious. Arlington’s close-knit bond is instrumental in its success, according to Shierk.
“Good camaraderie. That’s probably the backbone of why they’re so tough,” he said. “They’re just brothers. They do a lot of stuff together. After every meet they go down to Red Robin and get root beer floats. The older kids are starting to bring the younger guys. They just do extraordinary stuff like that. They hang out all summer.”
“We’re brothers. We’re all family,” said Andrews (75th overall at state meet). “To have a team as competitive as ours, it makes it all the easier to train and push each other and keep us accountable.”
Added Beamer: “I spend more time with these guys than my actual family.”
The large group of Eagles seniors are hoping to cap their Arlington careers with an even bigger trophy: the one given to the 3A state champion. It won’t be an easy course for Arlington, which will have to weather a difficult field that includes North Central High School. The Spokane school has won nine consecutive 3A cross country state titles.
“Once we finished state last year we knew that we were going to come back, and not just podium,” said Acero, as he held up one finger. “Our goal as a team — humbly — we want to become state champions and beat North Central, which has won it nine years in a row. That’s our goal as a team.”
“They deserve it,” Shierk said. “They work so hard. They’ve worked just as hard as any other team in the state of Washington. Magical things can happen. North Central has won, what, nine in a row? Somebody’s got to beat them. Why not us? They’re going to go down. Somebody’s going to get them. Why can’t it be us?”
Despite being on the podium at the state meet last season, Arlington views itself as an underdog heading into the 2015 season — where it hopes to again get to Pasco, and top last year’s finish.
“We’re still, for the goals we want to accomplish, we still view ourselves as a little bit of an underdog team,” said Taylor. “And we’re going to use that for motivation.”
The Eagles’ drive and determination has Arlington looking at North Central, as it tries to reach one more astronomical goal.
“If anybody puts in the work they can get to the point where we are right now,” said junior Kasey Sharpe. “It’s really an amazing thing to see a lot of these guys run. During workouts, you always see them trying their best and really just shooting for the stars.”
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