PASCO – Is it possible to run conservatively and still get what you want?
Most definitely.
The King’s High School girls held back a bit on Saturday, according to their coach, but still won the Class 1A team title at the state cross country championships at Sun Willows Golf Course. Sophomore Olivia Thomas placed second and freshman Adele Eslinger took 12th to spur King’s to its first state title since 2003, when it won the last of three straight championships.
“We ran well,” King’s coach Rod Wilcox said. “Maybe a little conservative, but we have a lot of young girls that haven’t been to state before so they were playing it a little safe.”
Thomas, who placed eighth in 2A last year, completed the 3.1-mile course in 19 minutes, 31 seconds. Lizzie Jewson of Charles Wright won the race in 19:15.
“I’m really happy with the place I got,” said Thomas, who was sick all week leading up to last year’s state meet but said she felt much better this time.
King’s tallied 73 points to defeat Chelan (102) for the team title. The other scoring runners for King’s were freshmen Morgan Hamm (33rd) and Makenzie Taylor (34th), and sophomore Lauresa Smith (36th). All of the Knights’ top five runners are freshmen and sophomores. The team has no seniors and two juniors.
“We’re gonna have the exact same people (next year), so we’ll probably be even better,” Thomas said.
Jewson, the race winner, built a 17-second lead by the 1-mile mark. Thomas eventually pulled away from the large pack that trailed Jewson, but the King’s standout didn’t have enough left to catch up.
“Olivia kept (Jewson) in reach,” Wilcox said, “but she was just a little bit too far out there.”
Class 1A boys
Twins attacked in the 1A boys championship race. First, twin brothers Rigoberto and Humberto Jimenez finished 1-2 for Royal. A little later, Jeff Dull of King’s crossed the finish line in third place and his twin brother, Evan Dull, followed with a ninth-place performance.
“That was pretty cool, actually,” Jeff Dull said of competing against the Jimenez twins for the first time.
Dull helped King’s grab the second-place team trophy as the second-ranked Knights (Washington State Cross Country Coaches’ Poll) scored 98 points to finish behind No. 1 Lakeside (45 points). Lakeside had four top-10 runners.
“They earned it,” King’s coach Rod Wilcox said of Lakeside. “We knew that we would have to run great (to win) and they’d have to falter.”
No such luck on the latter part.
Jeff Dull finished in 16:47 behind the Jimenez brothers, who clocked times of 16:17 and 16:28. Dull congratulated the Royal runners after the race. “I just said, ‘Nice job. You guys are strong,’” Dull said.
“They weren’t gonna be (beaten),” Wilcox said of the Jimenez twins.
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