By CHRIS PIERLE
Herald Writer
BELLINGHAM – Oak Harbor’s Scott Sebens won the individual title, but Snohomish ran away with the team victory in the Western Conference 4A meet Thursday at Lake Padden Park.
Snohomish had eight of the top 30 finishers who qualified for the bi-district meet next Friday. Snohomish’s A.J. White and Jimmie Poier finished in third and fourth place in the 3.1 mile race.
“We achieved our goal,” White said. “We all ran good races and we did what we planned on doing.”
White believes his Snohomish team will return to the state meet and perform well.
“I think our potential can take us to the top 4 (in the state),” White said. “I just think that realizing our potential as a team is what we need to do.”
The Snohomish boys received extra motivation by watching the girls team finish in first place before the boys raced.
“We feed off each other,” White said. “It gets our adrenaline flying when the other team does good.”
Shorecrest, Kamiak, Edmonds-Woodway, Marysville-Pilchuck, and Oak Harbor also qualified for the bi-district meet next week.
In the individual competition, Sebens was able to pace himself and finish strong to win the title with a time of 15 minutes, 54 seconds.
“I wanted to go out more reserved,” Sebens said. “I wanted to run strong in the third mile and be in attacking position at the end.”
He did that, and finished four seconds ahead of Cascade’s Andy Fader (15:58) and six ahead of White (16:00).
“I knew if he (Sebens) was with me at the dog leg, we had an equal chance of winning,” White said. “But he got the better part of me today. He ran the smarter race.”
Sebens, who finished 18th in the state last year, is hoping for a top 10 performance at the state meet this season.
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