Mead, Mt. Spokane unbeaten

The only thing certain about Greater Spokane League girls cross country this year has been its unpredictability.

Intangibles such as injury, incoming youth and reliance on pack efforts rather than surefire front runners served to knock preseason forecasts into a cocked hat from the outset.

Mead, with an ace in Ryan Torpie and a veteran pack, is as good a guess as any in the race for the GSL title.

But don’t count out two-time defending champion Mt. Spokane. The Wildcats (5-0), a team that was a league question mark despite a great 1-2 punch, appears to have answered them with the addition of a promising freshman and a sophomore newcomer.

“We only beat (Mt. Spokane) by one point (in a dual meet situation) Saturday. They’re really scary,” said Mead coach Wes Player. “Plus there’s some other good teams we have to worry about.”

North Central (4-1) and Central Valley (4-2), with a freshman core, are among them.

That’s why it’s so hard to predict the league outcome, Player said.

“I stopped trying to predict things a long time ago,” he said.

On Wednesday, however, the 6-0 Panthers’ sister act took another positive step by knocking off Lewis and Clark 21-38.

It was their second victory over an early-season favorite in as many weeks.

Torpie, who as emerged this fall as one of the league’s better runners, ran away with the race, timing 19 minutes, 44 seconds, a record on Mead’s new course.

Her sophomore sister Cailyn placed third, nearly a minute behind Ryan’s course record. They were followed by the Price junior twins, Alli and Lexi, who finished fifth and seventh.

Another sophomore, Katherine Fontana, completed team scoring with a top-10 finish.

“I thought we’d be pretty strong,” said Player, “but they’ve surprised me a little bit. They’re a bit stronger than I thought, which is always nice.”

The Panthers moved their course to the high school from Whitworth College, because of construction.

The spectator-friendly layout wound its way around the grounds 2 1/2 times, and twice up a hill behind the fields. Runners passed by band and football practices and a Mead-Shadle Park soccer match.

Torpie was shadowed early by LC runner-up Leigh Fredrickson and a pack of East Valley runners. Fredrickson passed her the first time up the hill, but when they came out of the pine trees, Torpie pulled away.

“It’s not really magic or science,” she said of her improvement from last year to this. “It’s just that the girls and being a senior is motivation.”

Her teammates moved up on the pack throughout the race to pick off runners along the way and defeat the Tigers (3-1), EV (1-5) 15-48 and Gonzaga Prep (2-4) 19-42. LC won twice and EV beat the Bullpups.

“The girls ran smart and stayed patient. They don’t panic when someone goes out really fast and have confidence in themselves that they can move up,” said Player.

“Even though they’re basically pretty young with only one senior, they’re pretty seasoned now. Most have run lots of cross country races and know what it takes.”

So does Mt. Spokane, which has gone undefeated in league three straight seasons, though it finish third in the GSL championship race in 2002 when the league was split into divisions and combined to determine an overall league winner.

Also in the league, at Liberty Lake County Park, Mt. Spokane beat University (3-2) 23-32 and Ferris (3-2) 22-35. Megan O’Reilly of Mt. Spokane scorched the course in 18:18 to beat Ferris’ Becky Mackelprang by more than a minute. Mt. Spokane freshman Courtney Zalud and junior Jessica Klier both timed 20:09 for third and fourth. … At Shadle Park, North Central (4-1) edged the hosts (2-3) 26-29. Clarkston (0-5) had an incomplete team. Shadle’s Cami Nelson won easily in 19:18, but NC had the next three finishers. … Central Valley (4-2) swept Cheney (2-4) 26-30, West Valley (2-4) 21-25 and Rogers (0-4) 18-41 at Rogers’ Seven-Mile course. CV’s Anna Layman won by a half-minute in 19:55. Cody Mace of Rogers and Jordan Clyburn of NC won wheelchair races.

Boys

East Valley’s Nick Atwood was in bed on Friday and couldn’t race on Saturday. Wednesday, he set a course record of 16:19 at Mead.

But it was all Mead’s Panthers (6-0) thereafter, the hosts sweeping the four-way meet, 20-43 over both EV (1-5) and LC (3-1), and 15-50 over Gonzaga Prep (1-5). LC won a tiebreaker with EV.

“I think Nick was a little upset he couldn’t run,” said EV coach Dave McCarty, “and today he took it out on the course.”

Atwood pinched a nerve in his neck lifting weights and the next morning was unable to get out of bed.

“It was so painful I almost threw up,” he said. “There’s still a lump there.”

During physical therapy later, he was told his back was out of alignment. You wouldn’t have known it by his 25-second victory over LC’s Ryan Zentz.

“I’m kind of surprised how fast I ran considering the injury,” Atwood said.

The next seven finishers were Panthers, clumped together a second apart.

“I know they were just running as a pack and not running as hard,” said Atwood. “But it’s always fun to run against Mead.”

Elsewhere, Ferris (5-0) swept Mt. Spokane (4-1) 20-36 and University (2-3) 17-31. Mt. Spokane beat U-Hi 23-32. Ferris had three of the top four finishers, Robert Cosby timing 15:39 for the win. … North Central (4-1) beat Shadle Park (2-3) 21-40 and Clarkston (0-5) 15-45. NC’s Andrew Scott won in 15:54. Shadle has competed this year been without injured No. 1 runner Peter Miller. … Central Valley (4-2) beat West Valley (4-2) 19-43, Rogers (1-3) 19-44 and Cheney (0-6) 15-50. Sean Coyle won individually in 16:36 and CV also had the fourth- through eighth-place finishers.