Olivia Thomas set a new school record and Evan Dull won the boys title, as the King’s boys and girls cross country teams both took first at the bi-district championships Oct. 28 at American Lake Veterans Golf Course in Lakewood.
Evan Dull and Jeff Dull finished first and second respectively to lead the King’s boys to victory.
Evan won the Class 1A race in 16 minutes, 26.8 seconds, while Jeff followed right behind in 16:27.9.
While the Dulls won by about 30 seconds, it was the supporting cast that earned the title for the Knights, who are ranked second in the state Class 1A cross country coaches’ poll. King’s scored 50 points to beat Meridian, which had 62.
“It was a very fast course but we definitely turned them loose and they ran some blazing times,” King’s coach Rod Wilcox said. “Jeff and Evan ran good races and everyone else ran great races.”
The Knights’ trio of sophomores, Brandon Dean, Griffin McGinley and Erik Halvorson, “ran huge (personal records) and definitely propelled our team to the title,” Wilcox said.
Dean finished 10th in 17:19.5, McGinley was 16th in 17:39.3 and Halvorson came in 21st in 17:54.5.
Halvorson’s time improved by an astounding one minute over his previous best set at the Cascade Conference championships Oct. 21.
With junior Connor McMahon out with mononucleosis, Halvorson went from an alternate to one of the main runners, Wilcox said.
At next week’s state meet at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco, the Dulls will be up against Max Reeder of Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) and Rigoberto Jimenez of Royal for the title. The Dulls came out “a little too tentative,” at American Lakes and will have to be more aggressive at state, Wilcox said.
Top-ranked Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) is the favorite going into state.
“Hopefully we can surprise them,” said Wilcox, a two-time Washington Cross Country Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
Meridian and Nooksack Valley, which qualified behind King’s at the Bi-district race, also “look very good,” Wilcox said.
The King’s girls, ranked No. 1 in the state in 1A, beat Nooksack Valley, the state’s No. 2 team outscoring them, 53 to 65.
Thomas finished second overall with a time of 18:48.9 behind Charles Wright’s Lizzie Jewson, who finished in 18:03, and is the odds-on favorite to win the state title.
“(Thomas) ran a great race, she had a girl push her at the end and outkicked her,” Wilcox said. “She’s still learning how good she could be.”
All the King’s runners set personal records, Wilcox said. Freshmen Adele Eslinger (sixth, 19:47.7), Morgan Hamm (14th, 20:44.4) and Makenzie Taylor (15th, 20:53.8) “all ran great,” Wilcox said. All three would have qualified for state even if the team had not.
Junior Megan Northey (16th, 20:59) and sophomore Lauresa Smith (19th, 21:13.7) “are running well and that makes our team even tougher,” Wilcox said.
King’s seventh place runner, Rebecca Thompson placed higher than Nooksack Valley’s fifth runner, Abbey Chapman. If that holds at state that will help the Knights keep the Pioneers at bay.
“(Nooksack) easily could make it tighter, there’s nothing given,” Wilcox said. “We’re ranked No. 1 and we beat ‘em, but they’re young, they’re good and anything can happen.”
For the state meet, Wilcox said he’ll have his runners pick up the pace at the start instead of running trying to run even splits.
“We’re just now starting to go out faster in the first mile, adjust splits a little bit more this week,” Wilcox said.
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