Young runners descend on Plantes Ferry

From the warmth of California to the snow of Plantes Ferry Park, local cross country runners will be among the estimated 2,200 competing in Saturday’s USA Track and Field National Junior Cross Country Championships.

Distance runners ages 8-18 from 16 regions throughout the United States have arrived in Spokane for today’s opening ceremonies and spaghetti feed and Saturday’s races that begin at 10 a.m. at Plantes Ferry, east of Argonne and west of McDonald on Upriver Drive.

Eric Sawyer, in a news release, estimated the event will attract 4,000 visitors and have an economic impact of $1.6 million for the weekend.

“The lower cost of flights and hotels in Spokane are really the driving forces,” Sawyer was quoted in the release. “People are finding that Spokane is not a hard place to get to in early December.”

Snow has been removed to create a trail on the course for better footing.

The field will include area runners who last weekend ran in balmy 70-plus-degree weather during the Foot Locker Regional race in Walnut, Calif. They will face temperatures in the 30s at the JO Nationals in Spokane Valley.

“I don’t like it (the cold) as much, but I’ve been running in it a while,” said Tylor Thatcher. “It will be easier than running in negative-17 and going to 78 degrees. I think that hindered my performance (in California).

Thatcher, who finished 14th in the seeded Foot Locker race, is one of approximately 20 runners who were in California and are competing again in the Junior Olympics nationals.

It has been a busy month. Thatcher, for example, finished fourth in the State 4A cross country meet Nov. 4, won the JO regionals by 23 seconds here a week later and missed by six places of qualifying for the Foot Locker Nationals, also this weekend, in San Diego.

“That was my goal, but I fell short. This was my fallback plan,” he said. “I think qualifying for that many races is an honor and a privilege. Cross country is my favorite sport and it stretches out the season.”

His high school, Central Valley, finished third in the Greater Spokane League and state meet and was ranked third in the five-state Northwest region.

Numerous GSL runners qualified, State 3A fifth-placer and Foot Locker sophomore race winner Andrew Kimpel from state champion North Central and State 4A runner-up Andrea Nelson from Shadle Park among them.

A total of 230 local runners will be among those competing in the 10 age-group races. One of those is 12-year-old Samuil Kuzmenko, an immigrant from Ukraine.

The North Pines Middle School sixth-grader found out about the race at the last minute in a roundabout way

“I was sitting here at the end of third period,” said Bill Berg, a North Pines teacher and coach, “and was talking to this other kid. He said he ran the mile and this and that, and I told him he might want to think about this national cross country meet.”

During the conversation Berg said he learned that Kuzmenko was faster than his friend and both entered the local regional race through his daughter Johnna’s Greater Spokane Track Club.

Kuzmenko qualified for nationals but didn’t sign up immediately for nationals per rule. He got special dispensation to register and Johnna bridged parental language difficulties to get the necessary signatures.

“I’d never seen Samuil run before, but understand his dad is a heckuva runner,” Bill Berg said. “Slavic is their first language.”

Distance running is a language everyone will understand at the USTA Junior Olympic Nationals.