By John McCallum
Editor 

Blackhawks runners are edged by West Valley

 

Last updated 10/19/2017 at 11:14am



A good summation of the Cheney High School cross country teams Great Northern League showdown with visiting West Valley could come down to the line from the 1960s TV program “Get Smart.”

“Missed it by that much,” the Maxwell Smart character would say, holding his thumb and index finger close together.

Both Blackhawks boys and girls teams battled their Eagles counterparts wire to wire, losing by identical 26-29 scores. In the final evaluation, a shifting of places anywhere in the top five runners would have led to a reversal of the final scores.

Hannah Spakousky led all runners in the girls race, finishing first with a time of 19 minutes, 55.2 seconds. Sophomore Megan Habegger and freshmen Jaela Thornburg and Marion Mager-Reeser finished 5–7, with just over seven seconds separating Mager-Reeser from Habegger’s 20:28.30.

Alexia Batchelor was 10th to wrap up Cheney’s top-five scorers, while Brette Draper and Jessica Vietzke finished 13th and 14th.

Bas Holland led the boys, taking first in 16:37.8. Tucker Cunningham was fourth in 17:00.7 with Becket Schoenleber, Julian Torres and senior Patrick Purviance finishing 8–10. Dillon Newbry was 11th and Aidan McCrum 13th to wrap up the Blackhawks finishes.

The Cheney boys finish league action at 2-2. The loss was the only one for the Blackhawk girls in the GNL, giving them second place at 3-1 with the title going to West Valley.

Head coach Derek Slaughter said if one or two of the Blackhawk girls could have slid up and broken up West Valley’s 2-3-4 finish things might have been different. The same was possible for the boys, where swapping places with the Eagles’ 2-3 runners or even 5-6 placers could have made a difference.

Both Cheney teams will need to work towards that at District 7 competition this Saturday at Beachview Park in Clarkston.

“It’s going to be a showdown, both guys and girls,” Slaughter said. “We’re capable of beating them (West Valley). It’s just going to be one of those days where everybody is going to need to have a good race.

A couple of girls have been dealing with an iron deficiency, a common ailment for runners, Slaughter said. One of those, senior Jolene Whiteley, should be back in time for district competition while the other, Draper, is taking supplements to get her levels back up and should be available by state and possibly regionals.

According to hypothetical meet scoring at athletic.net, Cheney and West Valley girls figure to battle for the top-two slots to regionals out of districts, while the boys are just back of West Valley for the second and final slot, with East Valley not far back. Pullman has been dominant this season, winning the GNL title and should repeat as district champions.

“Whoever shows up to run (Cheney, East Valley, West Valley boys) will get out,” Slaughter said, adding they would also stand a good chance to advance out of regionals Oct. 28 at Apple Ridge Golf Course in Cowiche.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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