Area Teams Rule The Roost Ev’s Girls, Boys Earn State Spots

East Valley’s girls ran twice as well as anyone else at Wednesday’s regional meet.

At times, in fact, there seemed to be twice as many EV girls.

Such as at the finish line, where freshman twins Melanie and Melissa Frostad were the first of 69 runners to cross.

Three more Knights followed in the top 10, as the three-time defending state champions looked prepared for a serious run at No. 4.

They’ll have some vocal supporters during the Nov. 8 State 3A meet in Pasco. EV’s boys also qualified for state, finishing runner-up to West Valley (Yakima), 51-59, during the afternoon’s second Region IV-3A cross country race at Hangman Valley Golf Course.

WV (Yakima) and other visiting Mid-Valley League teams did well for themselves in their competition with the Frontier League. Throw out EV’s qualifiers and the FL runners on their way to state are West Valley’s Sean McLachlan and David McNeill.

But EV’s girls clearly had the day’s top showing, scoring 26 points to the 64 of runner-up Selah, the other state qualifier.

The morning’s hard rain quit before the meet’s noon start.

Selah junior Sarah Becker raced to the early lead. The Frostads and junior teammate Korinda Godwin nestled into the top six.

Melanie Frostad passed Becker near the 2-mile marker on the 3.1-mile course. Melissa took over second place when Becker slipped at a sharp corner with one-half mile left.

Melanie finished in 19 minutes, 54 seconds. Melissa (20:08) topped Becker by 10 seconds. Godwin, fourth in 20:37; Cara Smith, ninth in 21:00; and AnnMarie Adams, 10th in 21:11, completed EV’s team scoring.

The Frostads were greeted at the finish line by their second cousin, whom they hadn’t seen since his wedding when they were 8 years old.

Back then, the Frostads were starting with their first sports love: soccer.

“That’s a good influence if you want to do cross country,” Melissa said.

Yet Melissa didn’t want to do cross country until Melanie talked her into it last year. Despite that, the twins appeared headed in different directions.

“Melissa was going to live with our dad in Montana, but she came back because she missed everybody,” Melanie said.

Melissa returned in late August, after her teammates had begun practices.

Melanie ran well enough to be EV’s No. 1 at the high-powered SunFair Invitational in Yakima, but broke her wrist the next day playing soccer for a select team. The cast came off Tuesday.

Boys regional champ Adam Tenforde of Hanford may be next in line for a cast, given the chills and spills of his week.

Tenforde, a junior, wore a large bandage near his left knee, where a dog bit him Tuesday.

The knee itself took a shot during the race. Tenforde, protecting a solid lead, slipped with one-half mile left and skinned his knee. He bounded back to finish in 17:12, 12 seconds better than Jared Christianson of WV (Yakima).

Tenforde also lost a few seconds when he went off course after the first big downhill.

“I felt pretty familiar with the course,” said the Richland Invitational winner, “but I lost track of that one cone.”

McLachlan finished fourth in 17:39, one spot and 7 seconds ahead of EV’s Ryan Coordes. No seniors finished in the top 11.

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