As the runners crossed the finish line during the Boys 3A Cross Country State Championship at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco on Saturday, Joel Reese started doing some mental math.
The Shorewood coach counted the runners as they filed into the back stretch of the course, watching senior Max Billett finish in sixth and junior Isaiah Schuelke come in ninth. Once junior Elijah Graves came through in 20th, Reese knew the Stormrays were in good shape.
“That’s about the place that puts you in the two, three, four range for state (placement),” Reese told The Herald over the phone. “So when I was coming back around to the finish line after cheering them on through the last section, I just knew we were in the hunt.”
Sure enough, Shorewood placed second with 117 points, just 13 points behind the state champion Mercer Island. Rounding out the Stormrays scorers were senior Tristan Crittenden in 35th and junior Brayden Yee in 79th.
After finishing sixth in 2024 and fifth in 2023, Shorewood reached new heights this year. The Stormrays were the top-performing area team across all classifications.
“We knew that if we had the type of race we were capable of, that we could come home in that second place, maybe even first if the cards fell right,” Reese said. “So we were confident in our approach.”
With an experienced top four that had each raced in the state meet at least twice prior to Saturday, Shorewood felt it could use its knowledge of the course to its advantage. With a decent number of hills in the first mile, the plan was to not go out too hard and spend the next two miles moving up the line.
When the race actually started, the field got packed in the front, which allowed the Stormrays to hang around where they needed to be before making passes over the rest of the race to gain placements.
“If you look across the board, all of our runners — throughout mile two and mile three — (were) just picking off double-digit runners throughout the course,” Reese said. “(…) You could tell they really made the moves that we needed, and caught some big packs at the end, with our four (Crittenden) and five (Yee) runners making some really nice moves.”
After executing its plan and earning some state hardware, the Stormrays are preparing to compete at Nike Cross Regionals in Spokane this weekend, in either the open invite or championship division. Inclusion in the latter would allow Reese and co-coach Paul Villanueva to be there to coach them.
In either case, this past weekend represented a landmark moment for the Shorewood program.
“Last two years, we were within 10 points of a trophy,” Reese said. “And so to finally hit that summit and really come through, it felt really good.”
The Shorewood girls placed 12th in their state championship race. Below are the full placements of the area teams that qualified for the state meet, as well as the individuals who finished in the top 25 of their respective race.
Teams:
Boys 4A—Glacier Peak (12th), Lake Stevens (13th); Boys 3A—Shorewood (2nd), Edmonds-Woodway (11th), Stanwood (14th), Mountlake Terrace (15th); Girls 3A—Shorecrest (9th), Shorewood (12th), Stanwood (13th), Edmonds-Woodway (16th), Mountlake Terrace (18th); Boys 1A—King’s (3rd).
Top 25 Individuals:
Boys 4A—12. Blake Roberts (GP) 15:37.7; 22. Colin Wear (Kamiak) 16:01.8.
Girls 4A—15. Annabelle Klein (Arlington) 18:52.9; 20. Jaya Holt (GP) 18:59.9.
Boys 3A—6. Max Billett (Shorewood) 15:40.8; 9. Isaiah Schuelke (SW) 15:47.2; 20. Elijah Graves (SW) 16:00.4.
Girls 3A—21. Addison Phillips (Shorecrest) 19:12.9.
Boys 1A—10. Nahom Getachew (King’s) 16:11.3; 17. Evan Blair (K) 16:33.8; 18. Isaac Girma (K) 16:34.7.
Girls 1A—8. Alma Decker (K) 19:37.5.
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