LANGLEY — Connor Whan achieved a rare feat for the Burlington-Edison boys’ cross country team Saturday, claiming the Class 2A championship at the Northwest District Cross Country Championships.
Next week, the Tigers hope to notch another rare feat at state.
Led by Whan’s win, the Tigers took second place to qualify as a team for next week’s state meet in Pasco, where they will be gunning for their third straight state championship.
Whan finished the course in 16 minutes, 28.63 seconds to beat out Sehome’s Scott Carlyle (16:31.61) for the title. It was only the fifth time a Burlington-Edison runner has won a district title.
“Connor is a smart, savvy patient racer. He always has a race plan in his mind and the fitness level to be able to execute that plan,” Burlington-Edison coach Sue Wright said. “He rose to the top today.”
Burlington-Edison’s Tyler Williams took fifth (16:44.48), Nathan Power was 14th (17:00.30) and Alan DenAdel was 16th (17:04.79).
“None of them ran their best today, which is fine. We’ve got one more week to retool and hopefully run the best one for the big prize,” Wright said.
Sehome was the overall winner with 37 points; Burlington-Edision had 60.
The Tigers’ Melanie Peters was 28th (21:05.62) as the top area runner among Class 2A girls.
Class 3A
Tessa Murray and Kayla Johnston turned in top-10 performances to propel the Mount Vernon girls’ cross-country team to a state meet berth.
Murray finished fifth (20:43.03) and Johnston was seventh (20:58.67) to help the Bulldogs to a second-place team finish, which was good enough qualified them for the state meet as a team.
“We had a good day,” said Mount Venron coach Jess del Bosque. “Our top two kids (Murray and Johnston) ran well. The whole team is really pumped. But those two did a fantastic job.”
The last time Mount Vernon qualifed a girls’ cross country team for state was 1986.
The Bulldogs had three more runners in the top 20, with Jillian Beldin finishing 17th (21:48.26), Kathryn Benson finishing 19th (21:58.14) and Teyler Wilbur finishing 20th (22:01.86).
“We had a good day,” said del Bosque. “Exactly what we expected to happen, happened. That doesn’t happen too often. But this is a great group of kids and to top it off, they are scholastic state champions as well.”
Mount Vernon’s boys’ team had a pair of runners qualify for state by virtue of their individual performances: Ethan Garrison (eighth, 17:02.28) and Nate Minor (10th, 17:07.87).
“Ethan went (to state) last year,” said del Bosque. “So he knows what to expect. Nate, it’s something new to him. They both ran great races.”
Although they missed out on state berths, two Sedro-Woolley runners turned in top-20 performances: Jordyn Adams (11th, 21:09.14) and Keiarah Lisherness (17th, 21:39.33), both freshman.
The top 10 individual runners qualified for the state meet.
Sedro-Woolley’s Kevin Bartelt finished 14th (17:40.98).
Class 4A
Stanwood freshman Jade Borseth helped earn the Stanwood girls a pair of championships.
Borseth claimed the individual championship with a time of 18:45.32 and the Spartans had three of the top 10 runners to earn the team title.
“The kids ran great,” said Stanwood coach Paul Johnson. “The last time we sent a girls’ team was in 2004. They are all very excited.”
And the coach was excited about what he saw from his freshmen phenom.
“She (Borseth) ran very well,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had an individual district champion come out of Stanwood.
“Jade has been getting better and better and stronger and stronger this season. She’s been training hard and has been very focused and motivated.”
Before each big race, Stanwood runners fill out a goal card for the coach. Borseth’s card simply read — win it.
“I’m certainly not shocked she won it,” said Johnson. “It’s what she wanted to do. In this sport, everything has to fall just right. Just little things can upset the apple cart. Today, everything went right.”
The Spartans shocked the favorites to win the team title — Jackson.
“We both ran the same course a week ago,” said Johnson, “we took those times and numbers and it looked like they should beat us by about 10 points. So everyone knew what they needed to do and five of our seven girls ran season-best times. And all were around 20-seconds faster. That’s a significant amount of time. That’s also exactly what we needed.”
Natasha Verma finished third (18:57.58), Minna Fields was ninth (19:32.28) and the Spartans earned 75 team points to hold off Jackson (92) and Snohomish (109).
Oak Harbor’s Allison Duvenez qualified for state with a sixth-place finish (19:27.39).
On the boys’ side, Oak Harbor’s Tyler King also qualified for state, equalling Duvenez’s sixth-place finish with his own 16:17.81.
Class 2B
TACOMA — The Mount Vernon Christian boys’ cross country team qualified for the state meet for the first time in the program’s history with a third-place finish at the state-qualifying meet.
Michael LeClair was the Hurricanes’ top finisher. He took fourth place in 18:03. Ryan Daut (eighth, 18:35), Peter Graves (16th, 19:02), Jacob Emery (18th, 19:04) and Scott Williams (41st, 21:56) were the other scoring runners for Mount Vernon Christian.
“They were really happy because all seven runners had their best time ever,” Mount Vernon Christian coach Paul Westra said. “We knew it was a long shot ... they were really excited.”
The Hurricanes finished with 81 points, behind Mount Rainier Lutheran (51) and Bear Creek (77).
No Hurricane girls qualified for the state meet.
The Class 2B/1B state meet will be held next Saturday at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
