Bainbridge harriers excel at cross country Metro tourney

Published 1:30 am Friday, October 28, 2016

SEATTLE – Racing through the muddy puddles of Seattle’s drenched Woodland Park, the Bainbridge High School varsity girls cross country team surprised the other 15 assembled squads in the Metro Championship with a decisive fourth-place finish earlier this week.

Senior captain Audrey Weaver courageously led her team almost all the way, smashing her previous record from 2013, set her freshman year, by 18 seconds.

The boys team also advanced to next week’s SeaKing District meet with a respectable seventh-place finish, again led by sophomore Sebastian Belkin (16:55), who became only the 11th BIXC runner ever to run under 17 minutes at the Metro Championship.

On the girls’ varsity side, junior novice Anna Scott stayed close behind Weaver and in the final 30 meters out-sprinted her in a photo-worthy finish (20:05.0/20:05.3).

Just behind them, senior captain Naomi von Ruden surged past more than a dozen runners in the last mile, finishing in a season’s best 20:18.5.

The scoring was completed by Spartan sophomore Natalie Taylor (20:27) and senior captain Jackie McVay (20:33), whose fast times created an unusually small 28-second “spread” between first and fifth place. Meanwhile junior Adalynn Griesser (20:41) and freshman Emma Brundige (20:50) helped set another BIXC record: the first time that everyone in the girls varsity seven finished under 21 minutes.

Though three of the boys team’s varsity veterans — sophomores Carlo Ruggiero (17:36) and Carter Hall (17:48) and senior Cole Brundige (17:47) — were slower than their season’s best, they helped set another team record: the first time all seven varsity boys ran under 18 minutes at Metros.

Meanwhile, three new varsity stars emerged.

Senior Jacob Carlson’s personal record (PR) 17:10.6 improved 24 seconds over last week — a huge 1:40 over his best time as a junior.

An already amazing sophomore class became even more incredible as Nathan McVay (17:20.3) and Sean Lindsey (17:20.9) crossed the finish line almost simultaneously, both with substantial PRs.

Elliott Windrope, still another speedy sophomore, ran himself onto the varsity team for the district meet by winning the boys junior varsity race in 17:39, leading his JV team to third place with senior captain Will Gleason (18:02), juniors Jason Weiss (18:14, a 14-second PR) and Kyle Hammer (18:18, matching his PR), and sophomore Sawyer Blair (18:19, a 21-second PR).

The girls JV team finished eighth, led by juniors Lydia Goss (22:19) and captain Lauren Wallach (22:34, a 30-second PR), together with Kari Perry (23:07), Eva Entress (23:20) and Iris Dahl (23:36).

The girls JV/Open team was sixth, as novice sophomore Karena Klinkenberg broke through to an impressive 48-second PR (24:52), followed by Maria Flynn, Sophie Crandall, Daley Trost and Emily Feeney.

The exceptional depth of the Bainbridge boys team was evident as they won first place in both divisions of the boys JV/Open.

Freshman Reuben Allen finished second in the freshman/sophomore race (19:29:5, a 13-second PR), followed by his classmate Joshua Lewis-Sandy and three sophomores: Andrew Westphal, Sloan Gibson (a 22-second PR), and Noah Faust, together seizing the win by taking five of the first 12 places.

Senior 400-meter track star Wyatt Longley decisively led the junior/senior open from start to finish (18:55), followed by junior Sean Williams (19:06, a 15-second PR) as the third runner, senior captain Greg Williams (19:34, a 15-second PR) seventh, junior James Shaw (19:36, a 7-second PR) ninth, and senior Kawin Nikomborirak (19:54) 14th in a field of 143, together edging out Bishop Blanchet 34-39 for the team win.

Many of the 100 Spartan speedsters who finished further back in their races nevertheless set substantial personal records.

Some were veteran runners, including Acacia Fowler (a 28-second PR, 1:40 faster than her 2015 best), Sawyer Blair (a 21-second PR, 1:43 better than 2015), and James Shaw (a 7-second PR, 1:54 better than 2015).

Most were novices who finished their first season by lopping big chunks from their previous best times, including Conor Babcock O’Neill (-:48), Brian McKinnon (-:42), Garrett Peterson (-:39), Thomas Eckhardt (-:28), Marc Freeman-Sheehy (-:26), Niklas Prun (-:24), Sloan Gibson (-:22), and, on the girls side, Tayler Westby (-:38).

On Thursday, Oct. 27, the two varsity teams competed again at Woodland Park against the best nine Metro teams, plus five from the KingCo league and, for the first time, perennial powerhouses North Central (Spokane) and Kamiakin (Kennewick), with the top seven teams and 49 individuals from this “super-District” moving on to the Nov. 5 state championship in Pasco.