Medical Lake has high hopes at Bi-District cross country

If this Saturday’s B-District 1A cross country championships at Plantes Ferry Park resemble a television rerun or a movie sequel that’s just the way Medical Lake head coach Gene Blankenship sees it.

The competition for his regular season champion boy’s team will be dominated by the local squads, Blankenship predicts. Teams from the NEA and Caribou Trail from North Central Washington, square off in races on the 5,000 meter course that begin at 12:20 p.m. (girls) and 1 p.m. for the boys.

“It’s going to come from Lakeside and Riverside,” Blanksenship said.

Bold in his previous predictions that included seeing the Cardinal boys’ sweep of the top-five finishes last Tuesday in their 15-40 win at Riverside, Blankenship expects the NEA will take three of the top four boys’ team spots at state, set again for Pasco, Nov. 9.

“The only question is going to be how low is my boys’ score going to be and are we going to qualify (for state) in girls for the second year in a row?” Blankenship said. The top-four finishing schools get to send a team to Pasco and from there, individuals in the top-20.

On the girls’ side Lakeside and Riverside, “Will qualify for sure,” he said. “There’s two spots left and it’s either going to go to Chelan, Freeman, or us – maybe Cashmere.”

Medical Lake will have both Micah Dingfield and Sakaiya McCoy, both in the field Saturday, Blankenship said. McCoy has been out of action for weeks due to a muscle pull.

Medical Lake has been running shorthanded without McCoy, “But she’s the wildcard,” Blankenship said.

“If she can finish the race and finish in our top-five I’m pretty sure we’re going to qualify.”

In Tuesday’s league finale staged at Bear Lake near Chattaroy, Dingfield’s younger brother, sophomore, Jacob, led the Cardinal sweep in the boy’s race with a time of 17 minutes flat. Domenic Rehm was second, 17 seconds behind.

Kaylin Sattler, with a time of 21:20, was ML’s top girl’s finisher, ending up third behind Riverside runners Rebecca Mildes (19:37) and Mikayla Shuler (21:02). The Cards’ Maleeka Wegner was fourth at 21:28.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.