It may not have been a team appearance, but Cheney’s cross country runners made a good appearance as solo acts at the 2A state cross country meet last Saturday at Pasco’s Sun Willow Golf Course.
The Blackhawks sent just three runners, the smallest Cheney contingent at state in a number of years. The results proved promising for next season.
Bas Holland had the day’s top finish for Cheney. The junior was sixth overall in the 5,000-meter boys race in a time of 16 minutes, 10.20 seconds — 25.40 seconds behind state champion Eliason Kabasenche from Great Northern League foe Pullman.
The Greyhounds finished sixth overall as a team, with Sehome taking the 2A title.
Senior Julian Torres, Cheney’s other boys’ competitor, was 77th in 17:27.10 in his last high school cross country race. The Blackhawks only girls runner, Marion Mager-Reeser, was 29th in 20:27.50 — setting a new personal record in the process.
While disappointing that neither the boys or girls teams realized their preseason goals of a team trip to state, the Blackhawks should be in good shape to reset those same goals for 2019. Besides Torres, the only other varsity boys set to graduate are Dillon Newbry and Tucker Cunningham.
Mager-Reeser should be in even better company as Cheney had no seniors on the girls varsity seven. They’ll need the experience and training as they will likely be chasing a West Valley girls team that one the state 2A championship at Sun Willows.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)