Blackhawk boys runners second at 2A districts

The Cheney High boys cross country team took another step closer to a return to the 2A state championships with a second-place finish at District 7 competition last Saturday in Clarkston. The Blackhawks finished with 49 points, eight ahead of West Valley, while Pullman captured the district title with 36 points.

The top two teams at districts qualify for this Saturday’s regional competition with Central Washington Athletic Conference teams at Apple Ridge Golf Course in Cowiche.

The Cheney girls just missed the regional team cut, finishing third with 54 points, seven behind West Valley and 32 back of district champ Pullman. But if you think the Blackhawks are out of the running for a team appearance at state, to borrow ESPN Game Day analyst Lee Corso’s tag line, “Not so fast.”

The top 14 individual placers at Clarkston move on to regionals, and Cheney landed five of their seven varsity girl runners in that group. According to a new rule instituted this year by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, “Individual qualifiers from a school that has 5 or more qualifiers will be scored as a team” during post-season competition.

Cheney co-head coach Derek Slaughter said that means that if all five Blackhawks girls place in the top 28 that move on to state from regionals, they will essentially run as a team in Pasco Nov. 5.

“It would be historic,” Slaughter said in an email. “Seventeen teams at state for the first time. Using a WIAA rule to get more teams to state. Love it.”

Hannah Spakousky led the Cheney girls on the 3-mile course at Clarkston’s Beachview Park, finishing fourth overall with a time of 20 minutes, 14.90 seconds — well back of district champion Elyria Kabasenche of Pullman’s time of 18:55.55.

The other six Blackhawk runners did well demonstrating the “pack” philosophy of cross country competition, finishing 11th through 16th overall, beginning with senior Lexi Brooks in 20:55.84. She was followed by Brette Draper (21:03.44), Jolene Whiteley (21:21.00), Megan Habegger (21:30.85), senior Alecia Brooks (22:05.96) and Alexia Batchelor (22:16.01).

Lexi Brooks, Draper, Whiteley and Habegger all qualified for regionals Saturday.

Matthew Christianson led the Blackhawk boys, finishing third overall in 16:25.46, just under 16 seconds behind district champ Jacob Nicholson from West Valley. Christianson was followed by fellow senior Drake Johnson in sixth in 16:34.64, freshman Bas Holland in ninth in 16:45.86 and seniors Kaleb Lerch and Jack Peabody in 15th and 16th with times of 17:11.48 and 17:12.60.

Freshman Andres Margraf was 26th in 17:50.00 and sophomore Tucker Cunningham 28th in 18:13.36 to wrap up Cheney’s varsity.

No Cheney runner turned in a season or personal best at Clarkston, something that might be a good sign in that they know they can run faster. Slaughter felt all of the runners ran well, singling out the performances of Christianson and Whiteley as notable, but pointed to areas where they can improve.

“The boys team ran strong, but needs to work on the 1-5 gap for regionals and state,” he said, adding the girls didn’t have enough runners in their race to help their No. 6 and No. 7 runners hold off other teams’ — such as West Valley — No. 5 runners.

“Look for our team score to beat WV’s in a bigger race, if we count as a team,” he added.

Slaughter thinks the girls have a good shot to make that happen in Cowiche and become a team again at Pasco. If that is the case, they will likely join their male counterparts, who Slaughter believes should also move on as one of four teams from regionals.

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