BHS runners boast wins, PRs
Published 12:20 pm Friday, October 7, 2016
PORTLAND, Oregon – Thirty of the top runners from the Bainbridge High School cross country team traveled to Oregon last weekend for the Nike Invitational 5K, competing on the grassy infield of the Portland Meadows race track against 4,000 high school runners from across the western United States.
The women’s varsity finished 15th in the 26-team Division I race, led by the outstanding performance of junior novice Anna Scott, whose 19:59.7 won her a medal and made her only the 13th Bainbridge female ever to break 20 minutes. It was only her second XC race ever.
The team scoring was completed by sophomore Natalie Taylor (20:25, a personal record by six seconds and good enough for 21st-place on the BIXC all-time best list), and senior captains Jackie McVay (20:52), Naomi von Ruden (20:57) and Audrey Weaver (21:15), followed closely by freshman Emma Brundige (21:20, a personal record by 58 seconds) and junior Adalynn Griesser.
Lydia Goss won a medal in the junior/senior JV race (19th place, 22:23), running with teammates Ellen York, Tessa Vroom and junior captain Lauren Wallach. In the JV race for freshman and sophomores, three BIXC novices running their second 5K smashed their previous times — Josie Meier, another medalist, by 41 seconds, Eva Entress by 39 seconds and Kari Perry, medalist, by 28 seconds.
Freshman Eleanor Collins matched the 24:06 of veterans Vroom and Wallach.
In the Division I men’s 5K, sophomore Carlo Ruggiero led the varsity team to a 15th-place finish in a field of 22 with a medal-winning personal record of 16:39, seven seconds faster than his state championship record last year and the 13th best BIXC time ever.
Three other sophomores had outstanding races as well, all beating their 2015 freshman times by substantial margins: Sean Lindsey (17:35, 14 seconds), Elliott Windrope (17:47, 34 seconds) and Nathan McVay (17:55, 36 seconds).
Senior captain Cole Brundige (17:42) edged out sophomore Carter Hall (17:43) at the finish line as both contributed to the first-five scoring.
The most noteworthy varsity performance, however, was by senior Jacob Carlson, whose 17:19 was an astonishing 91 seconds faster than his 2015 personal record and a 45 second improvement over his time just last week.
The men’s junior/senior JV team won 6th place in a 29-team field, led by junior Kyle Hammer whose 18:20 (a six second personal record) won him a medal for 19th place.
Also scoring were Jason Weiss, Wyatt Longley, Matthew Carlson (a personal record by nine seconds) and Evan Kimmerlein (56 second personal record), followed by Theo Prentice and senior captain Keaton Blair.
The rest of the BHS team competed in a Metro league meet at Lincoln Park in West Seattle last Wednesday.
The men were led by sophomore Sebastian Belkin, who took 10th place (17:40) while gingerly holding a strained shoulder. Substantial personal records were set by Sawyer Blair (19:44, 18 seconds), Noah Faust (19:38, 17 seconds), and Jeremy Lipschutz (21:40), while Jacob Tomer and Andrew Westphal had small personal record gains.
The Bainbridge ladies were led by novice runners Emma Sellers and Liz Messinger in a photo-finish, followed closely by junior veteran Anna Banyas.
Cross country competition continued Saturday, Oct. 1 as the entire team travels to Marysville for the Twilight Invitational Meet.
The team hosted its only home-based meet Wednesday, Oct. 5 at Battle Point Park.
