North Central’s boys, Mt. Spokane’s girls finish GSL cross country unbeaten

Eleven days removed from what he called a subpar performance, North Central boys cross country coach Jon Knight said his team’s showing in its final Greater Spokane League dual Wednesday was encouraging.

North Central put the finishing touches on a sixth consecutive league championship, sweeping Lewis and Clark, University and Rogers on the hilly 3.1-mile course at the county park at Liberty Lake.

The Indians (9-0) were led by Justin Janke, who finished in 15 minutes, 19 seconds and tied the course record set by Mead’s Matt Davis in 1993.

“Justin looked very smooth, very controlled,” Knight said.

Zak Kindl of LC finished second (15:35).

Because of the way the schedule is set up each year, Wednesday was the first time an NC team has raced at the rugged Liberty Lake course since 2010, Knight said. He took his team out to preview and lightly jog the layout Monday.

The Indians got to see a 107-meter long hill that is fondly called Big Bertha. Runners twice must ascend it and if after racing 3 miles isn’t enough, they have one last challenge – a 50-meter uphill finish.

“This is a terribly hard course,” Janke said. “I was hurting pretty good. It’s a killer course.”

Janke said a fast pace was set early in the opening mile.

“After the first hill, the top LC and U-Hi guys were really pushing it (the pace),” Janke said.

So Janke knew he had to pick up his stride.

“It was a fast first mile on this course. It was just below 5 (minutes),” Janke said. “The fact we went out fast made it even harder.”

Knight said running at Liberty Lake wouldn’t have been his choice for the final league dual – not with regionals a week from Saturday.

“This is a true cross country course,” Knight said. “It’s rough. It’s not a run in the park. It beats you up. Your big worry here is somebody might get hurt and there wouldn’t be enough recovery time (for regionals).”

There was a 20-second gap between NC’s second finisher, Sam Sjoberg, and the fifth finisher, Mica Jones.

“We’re making progress,” Knight said. “It’s showing up more in practice than in meets.”

Earlier this month, NC took second by four points behind Eisenhower, the No. 1-ranked team in 4A, at the Richland Invite. The runner-up finish didn’t so much bother Knight as the fact that the typically tight pack behind Janke was too loose.

“Richland wasn’t a highlight for the team,” Janke said. “Sam (Sjoberg) ran really well today and he’s been running well lately. Jacob (Christner) is coming back to his normal self and looking as strong as ever. And Gabe (Meek) is always reliable who is really running strong. We’ve been having some indicators of what we’re capable of.”

In the girls meet, Abby Smith led LC to a sweep. She won in 18:59, 8 seconds ahead of Claire Dingus of U-Hi. LC’s other top runner, Katie Thronson, missed the meet after coming down with a fever during the day.

The Mt. Spokane girls capped an undefeated season by sweeping Mead, Ferris and Shadle Park at Mead. Micaela Kostecka led Mt. Spokane, finishing first (18:52). The Wildcats had a 1-2-3 finish. Following Kostecka were Shawnee Konrad (19:07) and Makenna Endebrock (19:13). … In the boys at Mead, Ferris swept to finish 8-1in league. Erik Holm (15:46) took third, leading the Saxons. Hayden Dressel of Mt. Spokane (15:38) took first. Cameron Dean (1544) led Mead. … At Central Valley, the Bears boys and girls topped Gonzaga Prep. Johnny Cooney (16:03) of G-Prep took first followed by Gabe Romney (16:09) of CV. Kearan Nelson (19:08) of CV won.