Cheney cross country coach Camille Moseley exhorts Steavan Zachman to move up in positioning near the end of the senior boys race at last Saturday's Highlander Invitational. Zachman did move up, finishing 10th overall.
On a day perfectly made for running, Cheney High School's cross country team ran almost perfectly in their first meet of the season.
The Blackhawks brought home three top-10 team finishes among the seven races at last Saturday's 43-team Highlander Invitational on a sun-drenched course at Shadle Park High School. The Cheney senior boys ran to a fifth-place finish, while the varsity girls and sophomore boys earned sixth-place finishes.
Head coach Jay Martin said compared with last year's times on the 2.5-mile course, this year's squad is faster.
"Which is good news, but we have no idea how we're going to stack up (against league competition) because everybody else may be faster too," Martin said.
Steavan Zachman led the way for the senior boys, clipping past several runners down the stretch to finish 10th overall with a time of 13:24 even. Kameron Galm wasn't far behind in 18th in 13:47.70 while Carson Kerr finished 33rd in the field of 116 with a time of 14:32.10.
Cheney's trio were the second, third and fourth fastest of Great Northern League runners entered in the field, with West Valley's Skylar Ovnicek finishing third overall in 12:47.60.
Wenatchee's Cole Christman was first in 12:32.10. Also competing for Cheney were JT Gould, Britton Williams and Justin Barker.
The varsity girls were led by the future of Blackhawks' girls running - freshmen Hannah Spakousky and Jolene Whiteley. Spakousky was ninth in 16:02.10 while Whiteley finished 35th in 16:40.60.
Senior Mattie McNair showed the benefits of the 270 miles she put in this summer with a 46th place finish in 16:59.90. Kelsey Schwendiman and Alecia Brooks finished within 13.70 seconds of McNair for 48th and 51st while Lexi Brooks was 88th in the field of 121.
Kaleb Lerch led the sophomore boys, finishing seventh in a varsity-qualifying time of 14:12.62. Mason Van Stone and Luke Huguenin led Cheney's junior boys to an 11th-place finish with varsity times of 14:48.30 and 15:02.70.
Sophomore Shannen Gladden led the combined girls team to a 12th-place finish with a time of 18:32.10 while Jessica Vietzke turned in a top-20 finish by placing 15th in the freshmen field of 85 in 17:53.04.
Martin was pleased with the performances of his runners in the year's first meet. The Blackhawks will see a truer test of where they are with their physical training and running skills when they go head to head Wednesday (Sept. 17) with East Valley in the first league dual meet for both schools.
Cheney concludes the week with the multi-team Erik Anderson Invitational, which also features races with area college teams as well as high school, this Saturday at Plantes Ferry State Park.
"We're encouraged," Martin said of his team's progress.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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