PASCO — Three in a row for the Battle Maidens.
The King’s cross country team, who prefer their own nickname to the school’s choice of Knights, won their third-straight Class A/B cross country title on Saturday.
They ran not just for themselves, but for Merridy Stilwell, a Lake Stevens Middle School runner who passed away during a cross country meet in September.
"We dedicated our season to her," said Rod Wilcox, with tears forming in his eyes. "We told her family we’d finish the season for her."
The Battle Maidens also ran with something to prove. Despite the fact that they’d won the last two titles and won the district meet last week, King’s fell to third in the state coaches poll.
The Knights proved that poll wrong by placing five runners in the top 33 to compile 48 points. Warden, which was ranked fourth, finished second with 98 points. Top-ranked St. George’s ended up third. Freeman, which was ranked second, placed third.
"We were a little bit surprised (by the rankings)," said Rachel Wagner, the only senior Battle Maiden. "It gave us motivation to run faster. We couldn’t slack off.
Melody Miles placed fifth among runners who count in the team scores and 13th overall. Heidi Kieling (6th/17th), Laura Coghlan (7th/19th), Wagner (14th/30th) and Heidi Peterson (16th/33rd) rounded out the top five for King’s. Nos. 6 and 7 runners Chelsea Snyder (17th/35th) and Anneliese Fruhling (26th/49th) showed that the Knights will have little or no dropoff without Wagner next year.
The King’s boys saw their string of four titles come to an end at the hand of Charles Wright. Steven Miller finished third (16:33) for the Knights behind champion Tom Wyatt of Charles Wright (15:38). King’s junior runners Brent Woodham and Alex Croutworst finished 15th and 16th, respectively.
South Whidbey will add two more trophies to its case as well. Led by James Sundquist’s fourth-place finish, the boys finished second in the Class 2A meet. Sundquist led parts of the race, which ended in a tight finish. The top four harriers finished only five seconds apart in the race, which was won by Chelan’s Michael Dols.
The South Whidbey girls finished third thanks to the performances of Callie Supsinskas and Mary Bakeman, who finished 13th and 15th, respectively. Nancy Godsey was 25th.
"We’re pretty happy," said Falcons coach Doug Fulton, whose team will compete at the 3A level next season. "We wanted to go out this year with a couple trophies. The boys ran well."
Granite Falls’ Neil Hollo finished fifth, 17 seconds behind Sundquist. South Whidbey’s J.D. Peters, a sophomore was ninth. Teammate Holton Schmitt placed 23rd. Lakewood sophomore Tyler Rapp finished 12th.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
