Edmonds-Woodway’s Yilma sets meet record

Published 7:08 am Tuesday, March 4, 2008

MARYSVILLE

For most of the Oct. 20 race, Yon Yilma had no competitors to chase. The only thing the Edmonds-Woodway High School senior had left to pursue was the guy driving a go-cart several hundred feet ahead of him.

But Yilma actually was hunting something unseen. And he caught it.

Yilma won the Western Conference South Division boys cross country championship race at Lakewood High School, finishing the 5-kilometer course in 15 minutes, 39 seconds — an impressive 36 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Mitchell Briggs of Jackson. Yilma also beat former Jackson runner Jeff Helmer’s meet record by two seconds, an accomplishment that had Yilma beaming.

“It felt good. I rested up all week and it was Jeff’s record I wanted to get,” said Yilma, the runner-up last year. In 2005, he placed sixth when Helmer finished in a then-meet record time of 15:41.

“I look up to him a lot,” Yilma said.

Briggs and Ben Lance (fifth) helped Jackson tally 39 points and win its second consecutive Wesco South team title. Mountlake Terrace (59 points) was second. Last year Jackson and Terrace tied for the top spot but Jackson won because its No. 6 runner was faster than Terrace’s.

Jackson is ranked No. 9 in the 4A state coaches’ poll.

Yilma is a close friend of Helmer, who now runs for Arizona State University. The standout runners have trained together and Yilma said he hopes to run for ASU after high school.

Wet, muddy conditions didn’t seem to affect Yilma. Unlike many other runners, he didn’t sink into the course. Yilma attributed it to his 5-foot-3, 108-pound frame.

Saturday’s races were essentially a warmup for this week’s district meets, where runners will qualify for the state championships (Nov. 3 in Pasco).

Mike Cane writes for The Herald in Everett.