Rundown on a rivalry
Ferris and Mead. Two of the best boys cross country teams in the country. One race for all the marbles against age-old archrivals.
Think Yankees-Red Sox in the seventh game of the ALCS.
“That’s pretty much what it is – Yankees-Red Sox,” said Dylan Hatcher, Mead’s No. 1 runner and the Eastern Regional champion by 1 second over Ferris’ David Hickerson. “Off the field, we’re pretty good friends with those guys, but during a race we just want to run them into the ground.”
Ferris, the three-time defending State 4A champion, is the No. 1-ranked team in the nation after starting the year at No. 3. The Saxons scored convincing wins at the prestigious Stanford Invitational and Jim Danner Invitational. Mead, winner of 13 state titles since 1976 – a dozen times under coach Pat Tyson – is ranked No. 2 in the Pacific Northwest and was the preseason No. 1.
But at last week’s regional meet in Yakima, Mead turned in the upset by a single point, 41-42, setting up Saturday’s classic finale at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
“It doesn’t get any closer than that,” Ferris coach Mike Hadway said. “I was hoping for an undefeated season and we missed it by one point. Last year Mead had an undefeated season right up until state and we got them. Payback comes around, I guess.”
“I tried to convince Mike that (Saturday) was a statistical dead heat,” first-year Mead coach Steve Kiesel said. “But he wasn’t buying it. We’re talking one runner difference, and it doesn’t have to be a Mead runner or a Ferris runner.
“He was trying to tell me that we have the target on our backs now, but I was trying to tell him that, no, we both do.”
Hadway and Kiesel have been best friends for 32 years. While preseason national polls sorted through which of the teams should be top ranked, they were busy roofing Kiesel’s house.
The Mead-Ferris cross country rivalry predates the long-standing friendship, with the two schools owning 19 of 46 state big-school titles.
“People say ‘Man, you must wish you were in another league,’ ” Hadway said. “I think in our league, having this competition makes you rise to the occasion. I was talking to a coach from over on the other side of the state, and he was saying that league meets are a joke over there. His teams were going one-through-seven in every meet. You don’t get better that way.”
Kiesel coached at Rogers before taking over the Panthers when Tyson left to be the assistant men’s and women’s cross country coach at the University of Kentucky. It was Tyson who got Kiesel interested in coaching and who recommended him for the Mead job.
“Mike seems to have that magic touch,” Kiesel said. “The last couple of years he’s really gotten his teams up for the state meet. I’ve been trying to get his secret out of him, but he’s not sharing.”
There’s nothing secret about either team’s game plan for Saturday, Hickerson and Hatcher insist.
“I know how every one of Mead’s guys runs and they know how we run,” Hickerson said. “I’m looking to break away early and run away from them Saturday.
“We’re going to go out and prove that we’re the No. 1 team in the country.”
“Hickerson is going to try to break away and run in front,” Hatcher said. “It’s no secret he likes to run in front. I’m just going stay with him as long as I can. The longer I stay with him, the better my chances are. Last week I was able to stay with him right to the end and beat him to the tape.”
A 1-2 Ferris-Mead finish will likely set up one final race between the two teams next month in Portland at the Nike Team Nationals, the third consecutive time the two schools have run in the national championship race.