Wagner paces Lake Stevens girls

Published 11:28 pm Thursday, September 25, 2008

SHORELINE — No matter how much a person studies or trains, test anxiety can spoil everything.

Cliff Chaffee knows. A math teacher at Lake Stevens High School, Chaffee often has students who know the class material but get extremely nervous before a test and do poorly.

He’s watched similar scenarios unfold as the school’s head cross country coach. Test anxiety, Chaffee said, can be as harsh in sports as it is in the classroom.

“You psych yourself out and then you don’t compete well,” he said.

His top three runners on the Lake Stevens girls team had no such problems Thursday in a non-division cross country meet at Hamlin Park.

Led by winner Lacey Wagner, Lake Stevens placed first, third and fifth in the 3.1-mile race on the hilly, mostly forested Hamlin Park course. The Vikings fell two points short of team champion Glacier Peak, which scored 53 points and was led by runner-up Brenna Condon.

Lake Stevens’ first three finishers — Wagner (20 minutes, 53 seconds), Sam Minor (21:05, third place) and Cia Bywater (21:10, fifth) — stayed with the lead pack most of the race and spurred one another forward.

“We were all pretty much together the whole race,” said Wagner, who had a victory margin of eight seconds. “We kind of fed off each other.”

It was a season breakthrough for Wagner, a sophomore who had high hopes coming into the fall but finished 14th in her previous race.

“The (past) couple races I didn’t go out fast enough,” she said, “and so I kind of got boxed in the back. I just wanted to get out in the front pack.”

The key, Chaffee said, was avoiding that dreaded pre-race anxiety.

“We’ve got some expectations and you can turn it into pressure and it will get in the way,” he said. His message to his team was: “Let’s just do our job and go race and good things are going to happen.”

Glacier Peak, ranked No. 4 in the Class 3A state coaches’ poll, was led by Condon and Sarah Whybark (fourth place).

In the boys race, Shorecrest’s Joe McConaughy pulled away in the final mile to earn a victory on his home course. McConaughy finished in 17:35, 13 seconds faster than Glacier Peak’s Ryan Weed.

McConaughy easily reached his goal of completing the race in less than 18 minutes. He pulled away from Weed by excelling in the numerous hilly sections during the final third of the race.

“I had a really good race. I felt like I had a lot of energy,” said McConaughy, who said he’s getting over a nagging cold.

The Glacier Peak boys, ranked No. 8 in 3A, dominated the team competition. Their four fastest runners finished among the top six places, helping the Grizzlies tally 32 points and significantly distance themselves from second-place Shorecrest (60 points).

Here’s a scary thought: Glacier Peak cruised to victory even though it wasn’t going all-out. The team had a grueling week of practice, head coach Dan Parker said, and he told his guys to hold back a bit.

Still, Weed hung with McConaughy most of the way.

“He’s a tough little runner,” Parker said of Weed. “Ryan is a competitor. He’s kind of a pit bull.”

“Even if we’re not running hard,” Parker added, “he’s not going to have someone (in this case, McConaughy) win it easy.”

At Hamlin Park, Shoreline (3.1 miles)

BOYS

Team scores: 1. Glacier Peak 32 points, 2. Shorecrest 60, 3. Lake Stevens 69, 4. Arlington 79, 5. Monroe 96.

Glacier Peak-2. Ryan Weed 17:48, 3. Jeff Bastian 17:57, 4. Chase Byrd 18:00, 6. Levi Hinson 18:31, 17. Craig Dittman 19:25. Shorecrest-1. Joe McConaughy 17:35, 5. Chris Freeborn 18:15, 15. Steven Cleppe 19:23, 18. Tyler Kirkness 19:26, 21. Taft Knowles 19:29. Lake Stevens-8. Juan Castillo 18:44, 9. Brandon Martz 18:49, 10. Drew Larson 18:58, 20. Johnny Bywater 19:26, 22. Simon Collot 19:29. Arlington-12. Sean Gregory 19:10, 13. Jacob Fure 19:12, 14. Aaron Newsom 19:15, 16. James Clark 19:25, 24. Daniel Murray 19:51. Monroe-7. Brian Sutter 18:43, 11. Jesse Van Horn 18:59, 19. Scott Noll 29:26, 27. Austin Wood 19:58, 32. Alex Baker 20:30.

GIRLS

Team scores: 1. Glacier Peak 53 points, 2. Lake Stevens 55, 3. Monroe 61, 4. Arlington 70, 5. Shorecrest 110.

Glacier Peak-2. Brenna Condon 21:01, 4. Sarah Whybark 21:07, 7. Madison Sheppley 21:33, 11. Tara Kingston 22:45, 29. Katherine Feltner 25:08. Lake Stevens-1. Lacey Wagner 20:53, 3. Sam Minor 21:05, 5. Cia Bywater 21:10, 20. Angelique Goldor 24:02, 26. Dakotah Pilon 24:55. Monroe-6. Suzanna Ohlsen 21:20, 9. Alex Smargiassi 22:36, 13. Alyssa Schmeck 22:58, 16. Megan Bull 23:37, 17. Danielle Alden 23:38. Arlington-8. Safa Pinkens 21:57, 12. Bryna Prause 22:51, 14. Kristin Wreggelsworth 23:23, 15. Katie Anderson 23:24, 21. Yuki Dorff 24:10. Shorecrest-10. Lisa Lizarraga 22:38, 18. Haley Monson 23:53, 23. Grace Bogne 24:18, 27. Kelsey Mines 24:59, 32. Jennifer Gibbons 25:39.