Area Schools Take Three Titles

State A/B

Three out of four ain’t bad. Even the fourth was gratifying.

District 7 cross country runners nearly swept State A/B championships Saturday with two individual and one team title.

Freeman’s John Russell and Laura Halverson ran similar races for individual honors.

St. George’s girls won the team title, reversing last year’s outcome to Chelan.

And the Dragons boys finished second, which wasn’t unsatisfactory in the eyes of coach Ross Thomas.

“I’ll take it,” he said. “We thought we had a chance to win. Looking back, we couldn’t have beaten Liberty Bell.”

The Lions scored 68 points to St. George’s 103 to win comfortably.

Just as easy were the victories by the Dragons girls and Freeman’s exceptional duo.

St. George’s outscored Chelan 36-65 by placing two runners among the top five and bunching its next three between 23rd and 28th.

Russell and Halverson took charge from the outset and won going away to earn the school’s first-ever cross country championships.

A/B girls

An injury early last season hindered Halverson’s training when she finished 38th at state. This time she scorched the Sun Willows Golf Course.

Her time of exactly 19 minutes for 3.1 miles was 2-1/2 minutes faster than a year ago and 20 seconds faster than runner-up Cassie Sloan of Columbia-Burbank.

“I was just going to tuck into the front pack at first,” said Halverson, “but I felt good and they were not running at my pace.”

In the process of winning handily, she unseated last year’s state champion, Samantha Clarke of St. George’s, who took third.

But Clarke accepted winning the team title in its stead.

“Probably winning the team title is better because everyone is so excited,” she said.

Freshman Bailley Robinson chased her sophomore teammate to fifth place to provide valuable help.

“Her splits in workouts have been as fast as Sam’s,” said Thomas. “I kind of expected her to go off.”

The team victory reversed last year’s outcome when Chelan won 38-80.

“Chelan whacked us last year,” said Thomas, of the school’s first title since A and B classification schools combined. “We’ll always take the easy (B’s only) one. Now the harder one is even better.”

A/B boys

Russell left the field behind early and by mid-race on the 3.1-mile course had a comfortable 70-meter lead.

It was a lead he stretched to the finish, winning in 15:47, 14 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

“I was kind of disappointed with my time,” said Russell, who placed 10th last year, more than a minute slower. “I was hoping for 4:50s (miles) all the way.”

Three Liberty Bell runners finished ahead of St. George’s top runner, 13th-placer Ben Robinson, making it virtually impossible for the Dragons to win.

“They put us away,” said Thomas.

But St. George’s bunched the rest of its scorers between 29th and 40th to finish 11 points in front of Cashmere.