Serdar leads Reardan’s boys to title

PASCO – There was no stopping District 7 B boys runners during the state cross country championships,

Race winner Brad Serdar led the charge for Reardan, which by a point defended its state title by reversing the three-point loss to St. George’s the week before in district.

Valley Christian, winning its first team cross country trophy and Odessa, third last year, made it a clean sweep of the boys hardware in an impressive district show of strength.

“We thought about it when we got here this morning,” said Reardan coach Marty DeWalt. “Wouldn’t it be nice to see the East Side do something like that?”

That they did. Reardan scored 49 points to the 50 of St. George’s on a day of close outcomes at Sun Willow Golf Course.

The difference was minuscule. Serdar’s 2-second victory was two places ahead of Brian Angove of St. George’s, and No. 4 scorer Ryan Adkins of Reardan finished two spots ahead of Davey Coombs of St. George’s for the margin of difference.

Three other St. George’s runners finished a spot ahead of their counterparts in team scoring, but fell short.

“Both of us coaches were waiting for results and neither one of us wanted to go in and find out what happened,” DeWalt said.

Serdar, eighth in state a year ago when Reardan won the title a little more comfortably, knocked nearly a minute off his previous time.

The junior clocked 17:06 in the fourth race of the state meet to nudge Asotin’s Brett Fowler. Fowler was second for a second straight year.

“I felt like the best way of helping the team was to get first,” said Serdar. “(Fowler) had the emotional edge because it was his last race. But I’ve got heart.”

DeWalt said junior Steve Holien in 10th place and sophomore Manuel Fabien in 14th picked up slack this week.

“I love these guys,” said DeWalt. “My five guys may have flipped and flopped places a bit, but pulled it out at the end.”

Valley Christian, led by freshmen Jeff Pope and Tyler Stewart, scored 115 points. Odessa, with Matt Cronrath taking seventh, one place ahead of Pope, finished with 123.

Freeman’s boys were sixth and girls tied for sixth in their 1A and 1A/B races. Medaling individually were Liberty’s Andrea Collins in ninth and Newport’s Terece Hahn in 11th.