Runners prepare for season

Talk about tough leagues.

High school leagues don’t come more powerful than the Class 4A boys cross country portion of the Greater Spokane League.

How powerful?

Central Valley is ranked by one poll among the Top 20 teams in the nation but is picked to finish no higher than third this year in the GSL.

The No. 1-ranked team in the country, Mead, runs in the Greater Spokane League. So does the No. 3-ranked team, Ferris.

“The GSL is probably the best league in the nation,” first-year Bears head coach James Berry said. “Year in and year out, we have multiple teams ranked in the Top 10. We send three teams to state. Every year there are teams that are capable of competing at state that have to stay at home.”

Ferris is the defending state champion. The Saxons scored 57 points and edged Mead by just 16 points in the state meet – reversing the order of the team’s 1-2 finish in the eastern regional state qualifying meet.

The Bears are good enough to be mentioned in that kind of elite company this year, and the team has established some lofty goals.

“I let my team set some goals and their goals are to finish top 3 in the region and top 3 at state,” Berry said. “Beyond that, they want to earn national recognition. The Nike team national is a big boost for our sport. Mead and Ferris go year in and year out, and everybody pays attention to that now.”

Greater Spokane League

Central Valley Bears

The Bears were the No. 3 pick all summer, but the national attention came when Tylor Thatcher, East Valley’s No. 2 runner and highest-finishing state placer a year ago, transferred to Central Valley for his senior season. He joins senior Sean Coyle to give the team a powerful front-running tandem.

“When you have two front-runners and the depth behind them that we already had, that makes it really difficult for other teams to compete with,” Berry said. “Having two runners out front is a big deficit for other teams to overcome.

“Sean and Tylor both trained by themselves last year. I’m hoping that having them run together, they’ll push each other to that next level. They would both like to walk away (from their high school careers) with a Top 5 placement at state.”

Running behind Coyle and Thatcher are juniors, Jayson Taylor, Jason Stoker and Andrew Cesal. The trio placed 1-2-3 in their flight at the All-Valley meet Saturday. Seniors Brandon Close and Nathan Damiano figure to push hard to crack the starting lineup every week.

“Really, we have seven guys that can crack the Top 5 any week,” Berry said. “Brandon was the odd-man out this week for our first meet. When we had our training run (Monday night), he was really going after it. He does not like being on the junior varsity. None of them do.”

East Valley Knights

When longtime coach Dave McCarty left for Chicago and a little vacation, he thought he had his No. 1 runner coming back.

Now, with Thatcher on the other side of the Valley, the coach thinks his team might benefit from the challenge.

“It may force them to become even better as a team,” he said. “They’re going to have to run together as a pack. We have a big learning curve, to be sure, but you never know where that’s going to lead.”

Five freshmen are out for cross country, and a number of upperclassmen are first-time runners. That’s forced McCarty to go back over the notes he made as a first-year coach.

“I can’t take things for granted,” McCarty said. “I’m going to have to go over everything to make sure these guys understand the sport. I need to make sure they understand about running and racing, of course. But I also have to go over things like what to eat and when to eat, how much to drink and what to drink, what shoes to wear … I can’t assume that they know that kind of stuff the way I have with some of the more experienced teams that I’ve had over the years.”

Senior John Marlow took on the responsibility of organizing team-building events over the summer and has made a big effort to welcome the newcomers to the sport.

Senior Brian Munns has been pushing Marlow for the No. 1 spot. Sophomores Nic Price, Tyler Sullivan and Dmitriy Kulpin all figure to run on the varsity, along with first-year senior Thomas Labat and freshman Cody Parker.

“Dmitriy has really stepped it up from last year,” McCarty said. “Tyler and Nic Price both put in a lot of mileage over the summer and have impressed me with their dedication.”

North Central is the Class 3A favorite, coming off a second-place finish at the Flathead Invitational, followed by Mt. Spokane.

University Titans

“I would guess that right at three-fourths of our team is going to be freshmen and sophomores,” first-year coach Mike Barbero said. “We’re going to be very young.”

The Titans’ top runner, sophomore Anthony Brown, won his age group at the All-Valley meet at Liberty Lake last weekend despite falling late in the race.

“He was well ahead of the second-place runner, but he fell coming off the second hill on a hairpin turn,” Barbero said. “He still finished with a good time, 17:05, but without the fall he might have had the best time of the day.

“He’s the second-fastest returning sophomore in the region behind (Jordan Curnutt) of Mead.”

A pair of seniors will provide leadership. Tom Fuchs is running well; veteran Billy McElroy is coming off an injury and may see his first action at this weekend’s Highlander Invitational at Shadle Park. Junior Kyle McNeilly ran his best workouts this past week and is ready for the start of the league season.

“We’re really stacked with sophomores,” Barbero said.

Sophomores Michael Owens, Brian Borden and Nate Hutchens all ran well at the All-Valley meet,

“Right now our best freshman is injured with a hip injury, Steven Witkoe,” Barbero said. “He hasn’t run yet – we’re shooting for this weekend. Our No. 1 freshman last weekend was Shawn Mummy, and Mack Fey was right behind him.”

Great Northern League

West Valley Eagles

The Eagles dropped down to Class 2A, but still challenged Lewis and Clark at last weekend’s Blackhawk Invitational in Cheney.

The Tigers earned the top two spots in the meet, but three Eagles took the next three spots: Justin Degenhardt and Michael White, both sophomores, and Joey Hartmeier, a junior.

“The boys are tough,” coach Jim McLachlan said. “They worked extra hard over the summer.”

However, the Eagles lost one of their top two runners.

“We lost the red head, Josh Gardner,” McLachlan said. “We had two runners who were really even at No. 1 last year, and he was one of them. But he’s already running well for the team at Cedar City, Utah. We’re going to miss him.”

Junior Richard Keroack returns as the team’s No. 1 and is coming off a strong summer of running.

Juniors Alex Hanson, Dillon Hettinger and Matt Tremblay also figure in the varsity mix.

“Our guys didn’t miss much running this summer,” McLachlan said. “My assistant, Gene Blankenship, had them out there running just about every day. Millwood Park at 8 in the morning got to be a habit.”

The Eagles should battle for a state berth in the GNL. Colville is the defending Class 2A champion.