PASCO — The Edmonds-Woodway girls cross country team didn’t come away with a team title or an individual champion.
But the Warriors sure made their presence felt at Saturday’s state cross country championships.
Edmonds-Woodway’s ‘Big Three’ of Yukino Parle, Olivia Meader Yetter and Stephanie Wroblewski each placed in the top five of the Class 3A race, leading the Warriors to a second-place finish in the classification’s team standings.
Parle took second place, Meader Yetter placed fourth and Wroblewski held off a pack of runners for a fifth-place finish in chilly conditions on the 5,000-meter course at Sun Willows Golf Course.
“We knew we all had the potential to get top 10, and we (all) really wanted top five,” Parle said. “I’m glad we were able to pull that off. It’s really cool.”
Led by its dynamic trio, Edmonds-Woodway finished with 114 points, well ahead of third-place Ballard. North Central placed four runners in the top eight and took the team title with 42 points.
It marks the third consecutive 3A second-place team medal for the Warriors.
“It’s a real tribute to them coming prepared to run well at this meet,” Edmonds-Woodway coach Al Bonney said. “It speaks volumes to the kind of effort that they put into their training. It’s pretty great.”
Parle, a Boise State University commit, entered with the top 3A time in the state. The senior standout was part of a tightly packed group of five lead runners at the two-mile mark, but North Central sophomore Erinn Hill pulled away in the last mile to finish with a personal-best winning time of 17 minutes, 55.3 seconds.
Parle crossed the line four seconds later with a time of 17:59.3, finishing nearly eight seconds ahead of third-place Kate Jendrezak of Eastside Catholic.
Parle is known for her strong finishing kick, but fell too far behind to close the gap down the stretch.
“I didn’t have enough time to go get her,” Parle said. “It was a little too late. It might have been because of the cold, but I just couldn’t get my legs to move. I had the energy, but my legs just weren’t moving as fast as I wanted them to.”
It was the third top-10 state cross country finish for Parle, who placed second as a sophomore and seventh last year as a junior. Parle also has excelled in track and field, winning the 3,200 meters state title as a sophomore and placing second this past spring.
“You can’t say enough good things about Yuki,” Bonney said. “Yuki is tough, she is strong (and) she is willful.”
Meader Yetter, a junior, was leading at the one-mile mark but eventually dropped to fourth place, finishing in 18:16.7. It was the third top-10 state finish for Meader Yetter, who placed fourth as a freshman and eighth last year as a junior.
Wroblewski finished in a personal-best 18:24.0, topping her previous best time by 14.2 seconds. She crossed the line first among a tightly packed group of five runners that all finished within 0.4 seconds of one another.
Edmonds-Woodway junior Alyssa Hershey contributed with a 68th-place finish, running a time of 19:48.5 that shattered her previous personal best by nearly 26 seconds.
“They’re a brilliant bunch,” Bonney said. “They came to play, and it was really awesome.”
Two-time defending state champion Taylor Roe took second place in the 4A race with a time of 17:37.6, leading Lake Stevens to a seventh-place team finish.
The Vikings junior standout finished 2.6 seconds behind Lewis and Clark senior Katie Thronson, who shattered her previous personal best by 18.7 seconds.
Roe beat Thronson by nearly 20 seconds to claim last year’s title, but this time it was the Lewis and Clark standout who crossed the line first.
“It comes with disappointment, but I gave it my best,” Roe said. “This is what I could do today, and props to Katie. She had it left, and she went and got it.”
It was the first time in her decorated prep career that Roe didn’t win a state race. In addition to a pair of cross country championships, Roe has won five track and field titles — two in the 3,200 meters, two in the 1,600 meters and one in the 800 meters.
“Taylor’s a little bit disappointed, but she ran well and she’s got some big races still in front of her this season,” Lake Stevens coach Stuart Chaffee said.
Chaffee said Roe plans to race in the upcoming Nike BorderClash and Nike Cross Regionals, the latter of which could qualify her for the prestigious Nike Cross Nationals.
“Last year, by the time she got beyond state, her body was pretty tired and she was kind of fatigued,” Chaffee said. “And so we set a goal this year to have our best races at the very end of the season.
“And I think that she set herself up very nicely to do that.”
Jackson sophomore Anna Skoog placed 12th in the 4A race with a personal-best 18:32.2.
In the 3A team standings, Snohomish took sixth place with 191 points and Shorecrest placed eighth with 209 points.
Cedarcrest sophomore Elsie Dombek placed ninth in the 2A race with a time of 19:21.1, leading the Red Wolves to a seventh-place team finish.
King’s sophomore Naomi Smith placed seventh in the 1A race with a personal-best 18:42.2, guiding the Knights to a sixth-place team finish.
South Whidbey placed 10th in the 1A team standings.
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