Payment breaks tape at Farragut

Whitney Payment of Priest River finally experienced what it felt like to break the tape first at the finish line.

It was difficult to distinguish which Payment enjoyed more Saturday at Farragut State Park – the delight in her first career victory or the improvement she had made since taking up the sport last year as a sophomore.

Payment held off Nikkol Sipes of Colville to capture the B girls championship in a time of 20 minutes, 49.4 seconds at the 17th annual Super 1/Farragut Invite.

It was nearly a 5-minute improvement over her 30th-place finish at the meet a year ago.

Payment took the lead about 200 meters into the hilly 3.1-mile trek that circles around the Sunrise Day Use area at the state park. In the back of her mind, though, she thought that surely somebody would come charging at some point.

“I didn’t know if I could hold it, but I kept going faster,” Payment said.

“She’s just totally taken it upon herself to work hard and get where she wants to be,” said Priest River coach Lance Clark, who is in his second year after reviving the school’s program. “Last year she was just in the middle of the pack. She didn’t know she could run yet.”

Riverside, paced by Stephanie Dye’s fourth-place finish, captured the B girls title with 75 points, 12 ahead of runner-up Colville. Brittney Williams of Colville, the B champ last year, was third.

The other three individual winners were: junior Anna Stone of Coeur d’Alene (19:59.6) in the A girls; sophomore Justin Rose of Colville (17:04.7) in the B boys; and senior Jesse Thompson (17:38.5) of Mountain View in the A boys.

Rose’s victory also led Colville to a repeat in the B boys. Colville finished with 45 points, 30 ahead of runner-up Riverside. Frank Lagrimanta of Timberlake (17:31.0) finished behind Rose.

The A boys and girls team champion had an apt name for the race held at the scenic park on Lake Pend Oreille – Mountain View. The Meridian-based school waxed the fields in both the boys and girls. The Maverick boys, with five in the top 10, finished with 27 points, well ahead of second-place Lake City (52), while the Maverick girls placed five in the top 11 for 37 points. Sandpoint (92) was a distant second.

Coeur d’Alene’s girls had a 1-2 finish in the A race. Coming in just 8 meters behind Stone was senior teammate Kristin Palmer (20:02.1). Post Falls freshman Angie Whalen (20:31.5) was third.

Palmer established much of the race’s pace, taking the lead from the outset. She continued to lead through 2 miles and was still in front after infamous “Goat Hill” – a 100-meter climb that often renders runners to a crawl.

But Stone overtook Palmer on the final downhill stretch after Goat Hill.

Second-ranked Mountain View came to Farragut specifically to see CdA, the defending 5A state champ. As it turned out, CdA did much of the watching as the Mavericks’ pack ran near the front throughout.

CdA, which finished a disappointing sixth, still hasn’t fielded a full team. The Vikings were missing two of their top seven runners.

Still, Mountain View coach Tracy Harris discovered what he imagined – a CdA team that’s defending state champ in name only right now.

“I wanted to come see if Coeur d’Alene had anything – and they don’t except for the first two (Stone and Palmer). They’re awesome,” Harris said. “We had six runners in before their third. We have a great pack. The one thing we’re missing is a front runner. If we had a front runner we’d be unstoppable.”

Colville’s Rose credited the individual and team win to training on hills.

“Coach (Dean) Fischer has been training us as hard as he possibly can on hills,” Rose said. “This race is just amazing. I love this course. That hill (Goat Hill) – oh, my gosh. It’s a great hill.”

•Dylan Hatcher finished 13th as Mead placed second in the team standings in the high school division of the Stanford Invitational in Stanford, Calif. Hatcher finished the 5-kilometer course in 15:56, 43 seconds behind first-place Al Acosta of El Camino, Calif. In the team standings, Mead, ranked No. 4 in the country, finished the Division 1 seeded standings with 107 points, second only to Royal of California – the country’s third-ranked team – which finished with 86 points. Ferris got a 14th-place finish from Stephen Olsen – 1 second after Hatcher – and finished 10th with 260 points.

•Nick Atwood of East Valley, finishing in a time of 15:29, took the individual title at the Mountain West Classic in Missoula. Atwood was 2 seconds ahead of Lewis and Clark’s Ryan Zentz on the 3-mile course. Flathead (Mont.) won the team title, finishing with 88 points, well ahead of second-place North Central (172). Mt. Spokane took fifth. On the girls’ side, Mt. Spokane’s Megan O’Reilly blew away the field, finished in a time of 17:21, nearly a minute ahead of second-place Kara DeWalt of Darby. Bozeman (Mont.) took the team title with 94 points with Mead fourth with 219 points.

•West Valley’s Richard Keroack finished fourth in the boys Flight 3-4 in a time of 16:36 and teammate Josh Gardner was fifth in the same flight with a time of 16:39 at the Bellevue Invitational. In the team standings, U-Hi, sparked by Mike Pierce‘s third-place finish in Flight 5-6, finished third with 110 points. Gig Harbor was first with 57. West Valley was 10th with 192 points. On the girls’ side, University, led by McCall Minark‘s seventh-place finish in Flight 7-8, finished ninth with a total of 207 points. Gig Harbor ran away with the team title, finishing with 15 points.

•Central Valley’s boys got a second-place finish from Sean Coyle in a team win at the Wenatchee Invitational. Coyle finished the 3-mile course in a time of 16:14, 10 seconds out of first place. As a team, the Bears finished with 34 points, 12 ahead of Richland. On the girls’ side, Anna Layman of CV won the individual title, finishing in 18:37, nearly a minute ahead of Richland’s Cydney Knight. Richland took the team title with 42 points, 19 ahead of the Bears.

Girls soccer

Katie Spangenberg scored a pair of goals as Pullman (5-1, 2-0, six points) held off Colville (3-1, 1-1, three points) 2-0 in Great Northern League play at Colville. … In other GNL action, Moria Beeler and Jacy Fitzpatrick each had two goals as Lakeside (Nine Mile) improved to 1-2 overall, 1-1 in the GNL (three points) by beating host Deer Park (3-3, 1-1, three points) 4-1.