Cheney High’s boys and girls cross country teams took a big step towards postseason aspirations with a big win at East Valley Sept. 15 in the Great Northern League meet season opener for both schools.
The Blackhawks boys placed three runners in the top five, and got key performances from their four and five runners to down the Knights 26-31. They demonstrated some early season abilities to run together by placing six runners in the top eight slots to earn a 25-34 win on the 5,000-kilometer course at Plantes Ferry Park in Spokane Valley.
Matt Christianson led all runners by outdistancing EV’s Josiah Poler by 17.7 seconds to capture the boys race with a time of 17 minutes, 56.5 seconds. Kaleb Lerch was third in 18:43.2 while Drake Johnson placed fourth in 18:54.5.
Key to the Blackhawks win for coach Derek Slaughter were the efforts of Jack Peabody and senior Ryan Axtell. Peabody picked off three or four Knights runners down the stretch to finish as Cheney’s fourth scoring runner, sixth overall, in 19:10.6 while Axtell also made a late move to finish as the fifth and final scoring runner, 12th overall, in 19:48.2.
“That was the difference between us winning versus losing, those 4 – 5 guys in the race,” Slaughter said.
Freshman Tucker Cunningham and senior Luke Huguenin finished 13th and 14th for Cheney.
On the girls side, coach Camille Moseley said strong performances from Alecia Brooks and Brette Draper helped carry the Blackhawks to the league win. Brooks was third in 22:47.6 while Draper finished fourth in 22:56.9.
Abby Hammermeister (23:15.7), Hannah Spakousky (23:27.7) and Lexi Brooks (23:35.2) rounded out Cheney’s scoring by finishing 5-6-7, with Jolene Whiteley eighth and Jessica Vietzke 11th. Moseley was impressed with not only the girls ability to run as a group, but also for some of them to run at all, given they are still battling the effects of illnesses typical for the beginning of the season.
“They’re still not feeling well so to see them pull off a win was exciting,” Moseley said.
Cheney traveled to Hayden Canyon along Idaho’s Hayden Lake last Saturday for the Coeur d’Alene Super One Invitational, with the boys placing third and the girls fourth in the 5,000-meter big school classifications. Both Slaughter and Moseley said the majority of Cheney’s runners shaved time off their previous marks, some as much as 90 seconds to two minutes on what they termed was a “true cross country course” with narrow, dusty dirt tracks and several big hills.
“Running those types of courses is only going to make them stronger,” Moseley said.
Johnson placed second overall in the boys race, finishing with a time of 17:05.4, 12.4 seconds behind Sandpoint senior Jacob Graham. Christianson was fourth while Lerch finished 14th, Peabody 19th and Axtell 22nd to provide Cheney’s points.
Spakousky led the Cheney girls, running what Moseley called a “great race” and “starting to feel like Hannah again” by finishing seventh in 20:58.2. Alecia Brooks was 18th, with Draper 23rd, Lexi Brooks 25th and Whiteley 29th to provide scoring. Hammermeister and Vietzke were 30th and 31st respectively.
Cheney opened their home schedule by hosting Clarkston on Wednesday, Sept. 23, for their second GNL meet. The Blackhawks finish the week by traveling to Portland, Ore. for the 100-team Nike Portland XC at Portland Meadows Race Track on Saturday.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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