LC girls runners want fun on the way to state

Two years ago, the Lewis and Clark girls’ cross country team had one of those magical seasons as a youthful Tiger squad took sixth place in state.

“It was an amazing group, a bunch of really fun girls,” said junior Taylor Yost, who was one of three freshmen on that team. “I didn’t really care that much about how good we were. It was just fun to be on varsity.”

With all but one runner back for the following season, expectations were high for LC, but injuries left the Tigers on the outside looking in when the state meet arrived last year.

“It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under us, and it took me a few days, maybe even a few weeks to adjust getting my priorities restraightened, so to speak,” said Tiger head coach Mark Vandine. “The group we had ran well, but missing two horses, we didn’t have enough to replace them.”

Those two horses were Yost, who missed most of the season with mononucleosis, and All-GSL runner Chelsea Momany, who sat out most of her junior year with patella knee problems.

“Sophomore year, I was running great, but I was running a lot, and all the pounding was really hard on my knees,” said Momany, who is back healthy for her senior season.

“There were days that summer I couldn’t even walk, it was really bad.”

“The first week of practice I was dogging it; I could barely run,” Yost said. “Then I found out I had mono. It was really sad because I just love cross country so much, and I didn’t get to do it.

“Chelsea had bad knees. Everybody was injured or sick, there wasn’t really any team camaraderie. It was kind of a weird year.”

One thing the Tigers will focus on this season is keeping the running fun, with 65 runners turning out for the team this year.

“We have the funnest team out there, and we have the most spirited team,” said Momany. “I think a lot of girls are attracted to the fact we treat each other as a big family.

“I think our team is really supportive of each other, so girls look at that and say, ‘Wow, I want to be a part of this,’ so they join.”

“Right now in the season, we’re not talking wins and losses. We’re talking improvement … where we want to be in the end and having fun getting there,” said Vandine.

Part of the fun for the Tigers is being healthy again, as they hope to bounce back to the top of the Greater Spokane League and regain their claim as the top team in the region.

“We have all of our runners back, and I think that they’re all going to be healthy, so that’s a good place to start,” said junior Eleanor Siler, who ran at state for the Tigers last season.

“Regionally LC can be better than last year,” said junior Logan Amstadter, who joined Siler and Yost as freshmen on the state team two years ago. “We have a much stronger base this year, a real strong pack.

“In years past, there were really defined front-runners. This year, the line between JV and varsity keeps changing.”

“They’ve got a great shot of getting back to state,” Vandine said. “Obviously coming out of this side of the state, that’s one heck of a challenge. …

“None of these girls has been away from state more than a year. They know the program, that if we have an off year, the next year we’re back at state, and that’s what they plan on doing. Fifth place in league, sixth place in regionals left a bitter taste in their mouths.

“They want to get out and show that a couple of years ago wasn’t a fluke.”