Reeder, Lakeside cruise through NEA on way to postseason
Max Reeder is ready for some competition.
The senior from Nine Mile Falls’ Lakeside High is the point man on the state’s No. 1-ranked Class 1A boys cross country team.
The Eagles have easily lived up to their No. 1 statewide ranking through the regular season, their first in the Northeast A League, a year after finish second to Colville at the State 2A meet.
Lakeside, which beat Colville head to head a year ago, dropped from the Class 2A Great Northern League to join the Northeast A League, where the Eagles were undefeated and unchallenged.
“I really miss the top runners from league last year,” Reeder said. “Guys like David Jacob from Medical Lake and Justin Rose from Colville. We competed against each other last year, but we also became pretty good friends.
“When it comes to Class 1A? We haven’t had any real competition all year. My primary competition is Kyle Johnson, and he’s my teammate.”
Lakeside runs today at Walla Walla Point Park in Wenatchee in a regional meet, racing against the Caribou Trail League for the first time.
Reeder’s primary competition figures to be Royal’s Rigoberto Jimenez, who covered the state course at Pasco in 16 minutes, 45 seconds a year ago to finish third at Class 1A. Reeder ran 16:56 to finish eighth in the Class 2A race.
“I haven’t seen any of the competition,” Reeder said, looking ahead to today’s race. “I tried looking some of these guys up on the Internet, but I couldn’t find anything.”
It’s the same with the Eagles’ state competition. Eight of the top-10 ranked teams are from west of the Cascades. Only league rival Chewelah, ranked No. 7, joined Lakeside on the list.
“I know that (second-ranked) King’s is supposed to be good,” Reeder said. “We’ve just been focusing on pushing one another all year and we’re going to keep doing that.
“Between myself, Kyle, Eric Alexander, Tim Welch and David Scott, we’re all been pushing each other and we’ve been pretty bunched by the time we finish.”
The Eagles’ top five runners this year finished in the top 41 runners at state a year ago.
“My goal this year is to run 16:30 at state,” Reeder said. “I’ve already run a personal record this year and I think I can do it.”
Reeder can thank Johnson, a junior, for the push.
“Kyle and I have been pushing each other all year,” he said. “Even when we go out for a Sunday run together. We always say it’s just going to be an easy, fun run, but by the time we get halfway through, it’s full-on competition.”