Huegli leads E-W girls to win

Jordan Huegli made sure that nobody would dismiss her after a disappointing finish at last year’s Western Conference South Division championships.

After battling injuries and finishing 16th at the 2005 meet, the Edmonds-Woodway junior outlasted the pack, winning the individual title and leading the Warriors to the Wesco South title on Oct. 21 at Lakewood High School.

The Warriors finished with 50 points, 11 ahead of last year’s winner, Shorewood.

Huegli finished with a time of 20 minutes, 12 seconds, three seconds ahead of Shorewood’s Sara Levy.

“I did terrible last year because I was injured so this was my year to kind of show everybody that I’m still in the game,” Huegli said.

Trailing heading into the 21/2-mile mark, Huegli used the course to her advantage.

“On the downhill heading into the woods I started to turn my speed up a notch,” Huegli said.

Shorewood’s combo of Levy and Christine Rusch finished second and third, five seconds apart from each other.

Warriors’ runner Yurah Lim finished sixth and the Warriors were the lone team to have five runners in the top 20.

Six of the eight schools had a runner place in the top 10.

Meadowdale’s Eryn Jones finished fourth, Kamiak’s Anna Abbey took sixth, Jackson’s Allison Ponce was seventh and Victoria Plumage was 10th for Mountlake Terrace.

In the boys race, Edmonds-Woodway’s Yonatan Yilma took second place (16:33) behind Mariner’s Dak Riek, who finished in 15:59.

Jackson and Mountlake Terrace both scored 50 points but Jackson won the boys team championship because its No. 6 runner finished higher than Terrace’s. Jackson’s top runner was Michael Manning, who took sixth in 16:55. Tyler Hill (third, 16:43) and Michael Tran (fifth, 16:53) led Terrace.

Yilma and Justin Wolfe (10th, 17:09) helped E-W take third with 71 points.

The 4A District 1 race will be held tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 28, at South Whidbey High School, with the top 15 individuals and top three teams for both the boys and girls qualifying for state.