Running with the best

Published 11:40 pm Saturday, September 13, 2008

Any discussion of the major cross country powers in Snohomish County has to include Lakewood High School, where the sport has become almost an institution.

Lakewood hosts the Wesco and Cascade Conference Championships. It hosts the annual Hole in the Wall Invitational, which draws 1,500 runners from more than 40 schools and clubs. And its boys team qualifies for the Class 2A state meet with machine-like reliability.

How reliable is that?

Well, the last time the Lakewood boys didn’t advance to state Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was taking MTV by storm, Ronald Reagan had just proposed a missile defense system better known as Star Wars and McDonald’s had just introduced something called the Chicken McNugget.

The Cougars have been to state every year since 1984, a record that head coach Jeff Sowards said is second only to Seattle-based Blanchet High School.

Last year, Lakewood won the Cascade Conference, placed third at districts and seventh at state. The latter was a lower finish than expected. Lakewood came into the meet ranked third in state. This year, Lakewood’s top two runners, senior Nick Devier and junior Taylor Guske, have lofty ambitions for themselves and their team.

“In terms of personal goals, the goal is to finish one and two with Nick (at state),” said Guske, who finished 10th at state as a sophomore. “It doesn’t matter whether Nick goes first or I go first.”

“If we could go one and two, that would be beautiful,” added Devier, who was the Cascade Conference champion last year and Lakewood’s top finisher at districts, placing seventh.

According to Devier, Guske and Sowards, the team goal is simple: Get to state, then run to the best of its abilities.

“We’ve continued to improve over the past four years (regardless of where the team finished at state),” Sowards said. “I think the level of training and expectation is the greatest it’s ever been.

“Team goals stay within the family, but the boys plan to do the best they can all the way to the state championship, and we run with the motto ‘Run as if you’re going to win,’ even if that doesn’t always happen.”

In other words, only worry about the things you can control. To do that, the Cougars put in the kind of work over the summer that leads to positive results in the fall. Sowards estimated the team’s top runners covered between 600 and 700 miles over the summer.

“Good teams,” the coach said, “are made in June, July and August.”

The Cougars compete in the same district as 2007 state champion Burlington-Edison and 2007 runner-up Sehome, and those teams once again occupy the top two slots in the Class 2A preseason coaches poll.

“The best schools in our district are the best schools in state,” Sowards said. “If you can make it out of district, you will do well in state.”

Burlington-Edison and Sehome each return solid runners who finished in the top 20 at state last year.

“They’re always going to be there,” Devier said. “I’m not worried about them. I’m not saying they’re bad teams, I just know that we are going to do everything we can do to push their performance.”

Added Guske: “We just have to make sure we’re prepared mentally.”

That shouldn’t be a problem.

Listen to Guske and Devier talk about training, or listen to Sowards praise the work of co-head coach Jon Murray and the assistant coaches and one thing becomes clear: This team is ready.

If that leads to a high placing at state, the Cougars will be thrilled. If not, at least they’ll know they did all they could to push their opponents.

And who can ask more than that?