Medical Lake boys second in state 'Virtual CC'

MEDICAL LAKE — However delivered, Gene Blankenship will gladly add his team’s recent finish to a long line of success in the recently completed Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association virtual state meet.

The 2020 state cross country meet crashed by Covid-19 this past November, but as with other things dealing with the coronavirus, out of the chaos there emerged much innovation.

Run at school tracks on April 13 for girls and the boys, April 14, the individual finishes were entered into a computer with the results announced last week showing the Cardinal boys finishing second, just three points back of South Whidbey 78-81 in the 19-team competition.

The ML girls ended in fifth-place with 122 points as Seton Catholic won the team title with 23. Eight teams competed.

As he had all season in the Northeast A League, Jamar Distel from Riverside paced the individual finishers on the boys’ side in a time of 15 minutes, 12.3 seconds.

Medical Lake’s Ben Henry finished sixth at 16:39.1 and Quintin Collins 13th in 16:59.4, earning sports on virtual podium reserved for the top-16 in the race.

Reid Headrick (17:02.2, 17th), Connor Palmen (17:14.1, 19th), Kyler Castro (17:34.7, 25), Sam Ornelas (20:08.5, 106th) and Aden Carl (20:36.8, 112th) were other ML finishers.

Blankenship’s success since becoming the Cardinals’ coach in 2010 is impressive. His teams won state titles in 2013, 2014 and 2017 and now have runner-up finishes in 2015, 2016 and 2021 as well as a third in 2019.

And they were seconds away from a fourth title.

“South Whidbey, they went 9,10, 11 and 12, so Quintin (Collins) was right behind in 13,” Blankenship explained. “If he (Collins) could have caught two of those — if we were head-to-head racing might have done that — we would have won.”

Just how close was it? Collins trailed the ninth-place Whidbey runner by less than six seconds and the No. 12 finisher by 3.6 seconds.

Medical Lake’s girls, paced by the No. 9 finish from Kayla Ramsey (20:04.3) wound up in territory not often seen in the program, Blankenship said.

“I was really pleased with my girls,” he said. “I can’t remember what year was but one other girls’ team from Medical Lake finished fifth at state. So, it’s only the second time that any team has been that high up.”

Grace Grubaugh (22:07.9, 36th), Katie Hiatt (22:16.6, 41st), Jenna Castro (22:47.3, 45th), Allison Payne (22:54.7, 46th), Paige Headrick (23:11.9, 51st) and Maris Tuck (26:01.1, 68th) were other Cardinal finishers.

As for the opportunity to even run a race, “I’m really pleased, you’re on the track so it’s not typical cross country, it’s fair for everybody,” Blankenship said. He plans to honor all of the “state qualifiers” just as if they had run on the traditional course in Pasco.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.