LAKEWOOD – This has been a season filled with emotion for the Lakewood High School boys and girls cross country teams.
The late August death of boys team captain Scott Skiles left a hole in the heart of teammates, coaches and anyone else associated with the team, and Saturday afternoon at the Hole in the Wall Invitational at Lakewood High School, the Lakewood cross country team honored him by dedicating the boys race to his memory.
“It was pretty emotional for a lot of the people here. Scott would’ve been proud of the way the team ran,” Lakewood coach Jeff Sowards said.
The Hole in the Wall Invitational is in its 23rd year and featured 39 teams from schools all over Western Washington. There are eight total races, ranging from junior high school to a an “all-comers” for anyone that wants to run the same course that the varsity teams run. The featured races are the varsity girls and boys races.
On the girls side, Holy Names’ Chelsea Burns won the race, with the Marysville-Pilchuck squad taking the team title. In the boys race brothers Yonas and Abaham Berhe finished 1-2 and led Roosevelt High School to the team title.
Burns burnt up her competition leading from start-to-finish, completing the 3.1-mile course in a time of 18 minutes, 50 seconds.
Burns finished 44 seconds ahead of M-P’s Kaylie Kimmel and falling just 20 seconds shy of the meet record set last year by Bothell’s Paige Pattilo (18:30).
“This was one of my best runs this year,” said Burns, a junior.
Burns and her teammates finished third overall, placing four runners in the top 20.
The Tomahawks finished with 50 total points, 17 better than second-place South Whidbey, and placed four girls in the top 13.
Led by the freshman Kimmell, the young Tomahawks surprised even their coach with how well they have performed this season.
“We ran really, really well today,” Marysville-Pilchuck coach Randy Edens said. “We’re a little ahead of schedule, being that it’s early October. We’ve got some young kids and we’re excited.”
Kimmell’s time was 19:34, and she was followed by junior Haley Nemra (5th place, 19:47), and sophomores Lauren Ainsworth (6th, 19:52) and Marissa Schafer (13th, 20:25).
Before the boys race the 1,300-plus athletes, and the fans that came to cheer them on, took a moment of silence to honor Skiles, who finished fifth in last year’s Hole in the Wall invitational and second in the Class 2A state meet in Pasco.
Once the race began it was all Roosevelt.
Yonas Berhe, a senior, finished No. 1 with a time of 16:22. Abaham Berhe, a freshman, finished nine seconds later at No. 2.
“We’re family baby,” Yonas said referring to the 1-2 finish by the brothers.
Unlike the girls race, the boys race was close for the first mile until Yonas Berhe opened the lead up while trekking through the woods. “Using the hills up there…that helped,” Berhe said.
Sporting red shoes, the senior from Ethiopia blazed through the final mile and onto victory.
“I tried to get some yellow on there, but they’re just red with a little green,” Yonas Berhe said, referring to the red, green, and yellow colors of the Ethiopian flag.
The Rough Riders finished with 57 total points, 33 less than second-place Bothell. The Tomahawks took third place on the boys side with two runners in the top 10.
Led by a seventh-place finish by Jesse Masten (17:02) and a ninth-place finish by junior Ryan Lemmon (17:08), the Tomahawks finished with 119 points.
“It was a great meet,” Edens said, “The guys and girls teams are young and they took a good approach coming into the meet.”
The closest race of the day actually came in the “all-comers” race.
The race came down to Lakewood alumnus and 2005 2A state champ Tyler Rapp and Lakewood coach Jon Murray.
Murray beat Rapp, now running for Spokane Falls Community College, by a half-second, with a time of 16:01.
For the Lakewood teams and fans, it was an exciting end to an emotional, yet beautiful day.
At Lakewood H.S.
3.1 miles
Girls
Team results: Marysville-Pilchuck 50, South Whidbey 67, Holy Names Academy 69, Lakewood 163, Inglemoor 206, Granite Falls 211, Roosevelt 227, Stadium 236, Mount Vernon 236, Arlington 253, Kentridge 268, Archbishop Murphy 271, Kentwood 276, Bothell 318, Everett 368, Graham 379.
Marysville-Pilchuck-2. Kimmell 19:34, 5. Nemra 19:47, 6. Ainsworth 19:52, 13. Schafer 20:25, 24. Martonik 21:04.
South Whidbey-4. Gordon 19:45, 11. Johnson 20:16, 15. Habel 20:29, 16. Co. Bosman 20:42, 21. Ca. Bosman 20:51.
Holy Names Academy-1. Burns 18:50, 10. Hesselbrock 20:13, 17. Reinhardt 20:46, 18. Weber 20:48, 23. Dornbush 20:54.
Lakewood-12. Gogert 20:22, 26. Osti 21:09, 27. Dunn 21:09, 33. Sowards 21:30, 65. Caldwell 23.09.
Granite Falls-20. Costigan 20:49, 29. Foster 21:20, 36. Anderson 21:40, 40. Littlefield 21:46, 86. Livermore 23:54.
Mount Vernon-22. Murray 20:54, 31. Shapiro 21:26, 53. Lynn 22:30, 57. Howard 22:46, 73. Benson 23:25.
Arlington-9. Bosket 20:07, 38. Pinkens 21:42, 60. Rayner 22:55, 69. Nicely 23:14, 77. Browne 23:30.
Archbishop Murphy-8. Moran 20:06, 28. Lyman 21:18, 67. Kelly 23:13, 81. Gizinski 23:39, 87. Suchan 23:55.
Bothell-52. Parry 22:29, 59. Urbanova 22:54, 62. Scullywest 22:59, 70. Thompson 23:20, 75. Shumaker 23:28.
Everett-14. Gebert 20:27, 46. Leighton 22:08, 100. Kronberger 25:03, 103. Deatherage 25:23, 105. Tian 25:27.
Boys
Team results: Roosevelt 57, Bothell 90, Marysville-Pilchuck 119, Bellarmine Prep 129, Kentridge 131, Lakewood 171, Issaquah 201, Inglemoor 231. Graham 237, Arlington 239, South Whidbey 275, Foster 290, Burlington-Edison 311, Mount Vernon 326, Granite Falls 360, Archbishop Murphy 387. Tyee 503.
Roosevelt-1. Y. Berhe 16:22, 2. A. Berhe 16:31, 8. Hoff 17:07, 20. Vytlacil 17:22, 26. Sahl 17:31.
Bothell-3. Brown 16:41, 5. Rooen 16:57, 15. Dorsey 17:14, 18. Parry 17:18, 49. Williams 18:02.
Marysville-Pilchuck-7. Masten 17:02, 9. Lemmon 17:08, 30. Nobach 17:36, 33. Crenshaw 17:43, 40. Laquian 17:49.
Lakewood-17. Guske 17:16, 25. Ervin 17:31, 38. Ordonez 17:48, 43. Walker 17:54, 48. Dye 18:01.
Arlington-13. Simbeck 17:14, 16. Passalacqua 17:15, 64. Goheen 18:22, 68. White 18:22, 78. Ewell 18:57.
South Whidbey-24. Fitz 17:30, 53. Warwick 18:05, 58. Rovang 18:12, 69. Stallman 18:35, 71. Gabelein 18:41.
Mount Vernon-35. Harrsch 17:47, 41. Jimenez 17:50, 81. Lien 18:59, 84. McGuire 19:15, 85. Gomez 19:15.
Granite Falls-39. Kettler 17:49, 70. Schneiders 18:36, 74. Hillery 18:49, 82. Quillen 19:07, 95. Mitchell 19:47.
Archbishop Murphy-56. Anderson 18:10, 63. Ryan 18:21, 77. Wahl 18:56, 94. Claggett 19:40, 97. Wright 20:07.
Tyee-92. Ladenburg 19:35, 99. Hassan 20:10, 103. Pham 21:10, 104. Elmore 25:06, 105. Venable 27:31.
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