Ready to run

One simple phrase from the Central Valley coach sends ripples throughout Class 4A girls cross country community: Anna Layman is healthy.

The CV senior has struggled with a range of injuries the past two seasons – struggles that have kept her off the course and in rehab.

“She’s worked very hard with Mark Whitley and his physical therapy people and, so far, she’s healthy and looking very good,” Dennis McGuire said. “I hope she’ll be able to stay healthy this season, because when she is, there aren’t but maybe five or six runners in the state who can run with her.”

Layman’s high school career has been storied in equal parts for her talent as for her medical history.

As a freshman, Layman turned in a time of 19 minutes, 12 seconds at state, good enough to place 13th. A year later, despite missing much of the season with agonizing shin splints, she qualified for state and ran 19:24 to place 18th.

Last year Layman had a great summer of training, but felt a pop in her foot while running at Finch Arboretum that turned into plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the inelastic, fibrous tissue that connects the heel bone to the ball of the foot.

McGuire said he will allow Layman to dictate how much she runs this season.

“As long as she feels good and wants to run, I’m going to let her,” he explained. “She needs to get out there and race because she hasn’t had a chance to do that very much.”

Still, despite being sidelined for much of the past two years, Layman has plenty of college suitors.

“She’s been getting an average of five or six letters from colleges a week,” McGuire said. “She’s going to run at college. It’s just a matter of finding the right fit for her academically.”

Central Valley

How well the Bears do as a girls team will be dictated by how well Layman runs, McGuire said.

“If we have Anna out there running well and get a good No. 2 running with her, we can be a very strong team,” he said. “I don’t know but what we might be an even better big-meet team than we will be a dual meet team.”

Seniors Kimberley Addy and Tracy Goehri join Layman as the team’s leaders, with freshmen Tristina Kline, Arianna Rios-Foucault, Erin Murphy, Eden Lake and Breanna Barsten all challenging sophomore Camille Carter and junior Laura Murphy for varsity spots.

“We’re going to have some very spirited run-offs each week to see who runs varsity,” McGuire said. “That’s always a good thing, especially for these young freshmen. No one can feel secure with their varsity spot – they’re all going to have to work hard all season long.”

Boys coach John Preston has his squad working hard and making good progress.

“Once you get past our top three or four guys, I don’t really know who our varsity runners are going to be,” he said. “I’ve got 12 or 14 guys all challenging for a spot, and that’s a good thing.”

Junior Sean Coyle, last year’s 3200-meter district champion, will run at the head of the pack. Senior Alex Blackburn had a strong summer following a good spring track season. Juniors Brandon Close and Nathan Damiano both are running well, as are sophomores Tyler Sturman, Jason Stoker, Bryce Aguilar and Jayson Taylor.

“I really don’t see us being the same week-to-week,” Preston predicted. “I think our lineup is going to change just about every time out.”

East Valley

Longtime coach Dave McCarty was alarmed when the photographers showed up to take his team picture. There weren’t that many Knights around for the portrait.

“Well, they take those team pictures so early,” McCarty said. “I didn’t have a chance to go out and recruit reinforcements.”

East Valley placed third at last year’s state meet behind Greater Spokane League rival North Central and state champion Bishop Blanchet of north Seattle.

Senior Nick Atwood was the Knights’ top finisher last year, placing 10th with junior Tyler Thatcher just nine seconds back in 17th place. Junior John Marlow also ran at state a year ago.

Thatcher recruited his older brother, senior Andrew Thatcher to help flesh out the roster and McCarty called in a few bets from last spring’s track athletes.

“I had a few bets out there where, if they lost, they had to turn out and run cross country and I called those in,” McCarty laughed.

Girls coach Nick Lazanis hasn’t had to do much recruiting, but he is evaluating what he has.

Seniors Jo E. Mayer and Elise Olk head a team loaded with talented freshmen.

“I’m not sure how many of them are going to run for us on the varsity, but there could be a bunch of them,” he said. “We had a good freshman class last year and we have all of them back as well, so we will have a lot of depth.

“Freshmen can have a big impact on a girls program, so depending on how these young girls do, we could be very good.”

A top 10 state meet runner a year ago, Mayer, enters her third season as a team captain, joined this year by co-captain Olk. Mayer turned in a brisk 19:08 at the state meet to place ninth in her first state berth.

“Jo E. is a real competitor and a very hard worker,” Lazanis said. “I think she’s a little ahead of where she was last year.”

Junior Evy Barbour, a standout as a freshman at Valley Christian, runs for the Knights this season

Freshmen Lauren Bergam and sisters Devon and Mackenzi Borja lead a cast of nine freshmen on the EV roster.

University

Boys coach Linda Lanker picked the brains of some of the country’s top coaches to put together a varied summer training schedule.

Lanker, who had four hurdlers named Junior College All-America off her squad at Community Colleges of Spokane, attended a track coach’s convention following last year’s Olympic Trials and spent her time talking to some of the best coaches in the business, turning that advice into this summer’s training regimen.

“I didn’t want the guys out running a lot of miles,” Lanker said. “I don’t believe in that and that was pretty much the consensus of all those coaches. We did a lot of intervals, we did a lot of cross training and we only ran three days a week. I think that’s helped a lot and it’s kept the kids fresh.”

The team held its annual Centennial Trail Run Tuesday, but added a twist. Calling it “Run for Relief” the team solicited donations to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“We raised over $2,000 for the Red Cross on Tuesday,” Lanker said. “I was just thrilled that the boys wanted to do that.”

As for cross country, Lanker is pleased with her squad.

“In the four years that I’ve been here this is really the best group I’ve had,” she said. “My captains are wonderful (seniors Ryan Ristau, Cody Brincken and Mike Pierce) and the freshmen have really bonded well. The captains have done a great job of making the young kids feel welcome. This is a good group.”

Senior Aaron Testerman, juniors Billy McElroy and Tom Fuchs, sophomore Kyle McNeilly and freshman Anthony Brown all figure to be in the varsity mix for today’s All-Valley Meet and next weekend’s Highlander Invitational at Shadle Park High.

First year girls head coach Chrissy Francek is getting a lesson in big number theory – greeting a turnout of 45 girls.

“Two things allow me to deal with this many girls,” Francek explained. “First of all, the program has been set up to deal with that many girls. Second of all, I have two great assistant coaches in Jessie Walters and Jamie Reece who really do a great job of making sure everyone has the attention they need.”

Any of 12 girls could make the varsity said Francek.

“When we ran our first time trial, the winner was a freshman, Stevie Gildehaus, who is just a little sparkplug,” she said. “My top two runners from last year, Karen Owens and Leslie Berkseth both are back, as is our No. 3 runner, Rachel Fridye, who is battling some nagging injuries right now.”

U-Hi’s senior captains are Dani Baziotis and Katy Hawkins.

West Valley

The numbers are relatively small, said longtime coach Jim McLachlan, but they don’t lack in quality.

“We have never had big numbers,” he said, “but we’re down on the girls side. We only have 10 and that scares me a little. We have our veterans back, but another five girls would really help.”

On the boys side, the Eagles’ No. 1 runner will likely be senior Marc Smith, who placed in the 400 and was a member of the second-place 1,600 relay for West Valley’s State 3A championship team.

The Eagles strength will be in a strong sophomore class that includes Richard Keroack and Josh Gardner.

“They’re both going to be really good runners by the time they get done,” the coach predicted.

Also in that class are Joey Hartmeier and Dillon Hettinger, both coming off strong summer workout programs, and Steve Foster.

Senior Garrett Hanson, forced to train on a bike due to a strong of injuries, is a strong runner on race day.

“We had our camp last week and we had our annual camp race,” McLachlan said. “That race doesn’t really show you a whole lot other than how this group compares to past teams over that same course, but these guys pretty much rewrote the record book.”

On the girls side, Larsen Agee returns for her senior season after placing 29th at state last year.

“Larson looks really good so far – much improved over last year,” McLachlan said. “And we have (junior) Kindra White and (sophomore) Camille Mackie back from last year and that should give us a solid 1-2-3 finish.”

Freshman Krystal Hughes, sophomore Morgan McQueen and junior Katie Junkins all will run on the varsity.