Mead boys run third in Nationals
PORTLAND — With each thousand meters at the high-tech Nike Team Nationals cross country meet, a new set of team standings went up on the Jumbotron.
And the team that made the biggest late-race push up the standings was Tyson’s Army, aka Mead High School.
The Spokane-area’s “other” team in the first national championship for high school team cross country — the one that lost to Ferris four times this season — placed third Saturday at Portland Meadows thoroughbred race track.
Paced by Laef Barnes’ sixth-place overall finish, the team called Tyson’s Army scored 146 points. Up front, it was the 24-time Illinois state champion from York, Ill. that won the national title with 92 points. Top-ranked Fayetteville-Manlius, N.Y. was second with 127.
“Our goal today was to get in the top 10,” coach Pat Tyson said. “We were trying to be the No. 1 team from our region.”
In a race where the motto was “Every Teammate Counts,” Mead’s third runner, Greg Panas, may have had the most to do with the team’s high placing.
“He was one guy that made a difference,” Tyson said. “He never ran varsity until this year. He’s a plugger.”
Panas placed 33rd overall. Steven Gimpel was 21st, while Taylor Nepon was 36th and Brian Palmer was 50th.
South Side Farm Team, comprising the team from Ferris, placed 13th. Ben Poffenroth placed 11th to lead the team, but usual leader Robert Cosby was 46th. The team’s third runner, Peter Hawkins, was 73rd.
Ferris, the Washington state champion, came into the meet as one of a handful of favorites.
Robbie Barany of the Yakima Harriers placed third overall to earn a berth in next week’s Foot Locker national championship for individuals in San Diego.
Sean McNamara of York, Ill. was the overall winner on the muddy 5,000-meter course in 15 minute, 43.9 seconds.
As expected, Kinetic Racing Club from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was the girls team champion, with three runners finishing in the top seven.
Barnes, timed in 16:13.2, narrowly missed a Foot Locker invitation but was excited about his team’s performance.
“I’m not fueled by myself,” Barnes said. “Running for the team and the jersey I run that much better.”
The Mead runners gained cut off about 30 points from their score after the first 1,000.
“Other teams began to fade,” Tyson said. “I think we held back just a tad and had more at the end. I saw Steven Gimpel toward the end it looked like he was thinking, ‘I can get more, I can get more.’ ”
Foot Locker regionals
Becca Noble had the top time among local girls and Peter Miller of Shadle Park had the top time among local boys at the Foot Locker West Regionals at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif.
Noble of Rogers finished 54th in the girls’ seeded race in 20:02 over 5 kilometers, while Miller was tops among the sophomores in the boys unseeded race at 16:39.
Cordelia Revells of St. George’s was 59th in the girls’ seeded race at 20:09, Whitney Porter (Lewis and Clark) finished 75th at 20:26 and Jill Keller (Mt. Spokane) came in at 21:07, good for 99th.
Becky Mackelprang of Ferris finished sixth in the junior girls’ unseeded race in 20:41. Mary Graesser (North Central) placed tenth in the sophomore girls’ unseeded race at 20:47, and Shadle Park’s Cami Nelson finished ninth in the junior girls’ unseeded race with a time of 20:59.
Tylor Thatcher of East Valley finished in 16:49, placing second behind Miller in the boys sophomore race. Michael Skansgaard (Gonzaga Prep) finished in 17:03 in the seeded race to place 77th. North Central’s Luke Graesser was the only other local runner in the top 100 of the seeded race, finishing 98th in 17:13. Mark Moeller (Shadle Park) was third in the senior boys’ race at 17:11. No local runners advanced to the nationals, but 12 of the 32 runners brought to the regionals by the Lilac Bloomsday Association medaled.