Medical Lake’s cross country team got to test itself and its coach’s sanity last Saturday at the Wenatchee Invitational at Walla Walla Point Park.
The Cardinals had to work around both head coach Gene Blankenship’s admitted mistake in timing the trip to the race, plus losing a number of girl runners to competing band competition, but saw the boys finish third (138 points) behind Eastmont (61) and Mt. Spokane (88).
Tanner Henry led the boys with a personal record time of 16 minutes, 53.23 seconds. Caleb Olsen from Hanford was the first runner through the chutes in 15:34. Tyler Pena (19) had a 16:56.9 while Mason Williams ran a 17-flat for 21st.
Evan Peterson (17:12.87/30) and Nicholas Henry (17:42.84/52) each had PRs.
The girls, missing four varsity runners, instead entered the junior varsity bracket and finished No. 4 with 111 points behind Hanford (26).
“I was a wreck,” Blankenship wrote in an email. ”I made a mistake with the bus time and then we were stopped by a train which was stalled on the tracks at the access to the park, so the girls had to warm-up outside the park and find a different entrance.”
In the girls’ race, Paige Headrick, a freshman, led the field at the end in a time of 21:48.22 seconds, followed by teammate Jenavieve Cogswell at 21:01.86.
With a number of solid performances in the run up to league competition, Medical Lake will have some idea of where they stand at the end of this week when they host Freeman and defending 1A state champion Deer Park Sept. 27.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
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