Nelson doesn’t look back
Andrea Nelson, Shadle Park’s irrepressible sophomore distance runner, was at it again during the Eastern Regional cross country meet Saturday at Wandermere Golf Course.
As is her custom, Nelson broke to the front at the outset of the Class 4A girls race. One-half mile into the 3.1-mile race, Nelson had made quick work of her foes.
Nelson’s was the second of four races that each qualified the top three teams to next week’s 4A and 3A state meets in Pasco.
Nelson was one of three Greater Spokane League individual regional champions. The league also produced three team titlists.
Central Valley’s Jayson Taylor pulled off an upset in the 4A boys race, Andrew Kimpel captured the 3A race as his North Central Indians once more overwhelmed the field, and Mead’s boys and CV’s girls won the 4A regional team titles.
GSL and Columbia Basin League schools split 12 available team state berths during the day, but the GSL had a slight edge with 33 of 60 top-15 finishers.
4A girls: Nelson’s penchant for front-running is disquieting for her coach, Bob Isitt, but he’s become resigned to it.
“She always takes off like that,” he said. “She loves taking off hard. I’m not a proponent of that, but for her, it works.”
Two minutes into the race, Nelson had already distanced herself from Davis’ Sandra Martinez and Mead’s Baylee Mires, with the rest of the field farther behind. She won by 36 seconds in 17:51, ahead of Martinez and Mires.
This came on a day when she had trained through the week in preparation for her attempt next week at a state title.
“I trained hard this week,” Nelson said. “My focus is on next week.
“I really wanted to beat 18 minutes today. My goal was to do a normal race, but push it harder.”
CV’s unbeaten GSL champions accomplished what they set out to do, repeating as regional champions with the exact 82 points they scored a year ago. But the outcome was considerably closer, with runner-up Richland finishing only three points behind.
Sophomore Eden Lake finished fifth and freshman Madi Barnes seventh to lead the way.
“Our top six ran as well as they have all year,” CV coach Dennis McGuire said. “But they all have the flu or a cold.”
Lewis and Clark’s Eleanor Siler, University’s Stevie Gildehaus and Gonzaga Prep’s Alicia Doohan also advanced.
4A boys: CV’s champion Taylor got a motivational lift from an interested spectator – last year’s No. 1 Bears runner Sean Coyle, who is now competing for Washington State.
“I sat Jayson down and said, ‘You can do this,’ ” Coyle said. “He has a total work ethic, is humble and tough.”
While Ferris sophomore Adam Thorne tried to steal the win, building a large lead he held for most of the race, Taylor sat back with race favorite Kelly Lynch and his Mead teammates.
Coming out of the second loop of the course, Taylor charged up a final hill into the lead, racing home in 15:51 and a 6-second advantage.
“It just sort of fell into place,” said Taylor, one of the league’s top runners who had never beaten Lynch. “I was trying to win anyway. I wanted to go for No. 1, so I tried to stay with Kelly and made my move on the hill.”
The triumph was tempered by the knowledge that CV No. 2 runner Bryce Aguilar has a stress fracture and couldn’t compete. The Bears, a prestate favorite, managed to squeeze into third past young and rapidly improving LC for the final team berth to Pasco.
“You don’t want to win that way,” said Steve Kiesel, coach of the champion Panthers. “You want everybody at full strength.”
But he was pleased with the performance of his team, after finding out it ran better than he initially had thought.
The Panthers placed all five scorers among the top 20 for a 62-83 win over Eisenhower, timing between 15:57 and 16:40. CV had 99 points, LC 110.
“It was scary to me,” Kiesel said. “Sometimes you have tunnel vision looking at your own team. I thought they ran flat. They started to spread out and after the first mile I saw (typical No. 2 runner Jordan) Baker fall back and thought we could be in trouble.”
When he glanced at the result sheet, he said, “That works, I can live with it.”
Joining the Bears and Panthers at state are third-place Thorne, fourth-place Dan Renz from Shadle, LC sophomores Derek Alcorn and Chris Ennis, and G-Prep’s Tate Kelly.
3A boys: Kimpel, NC’s No. 1 runner nearly all season, had what coach Jon Knight called a breakout performance.
The defending state champion Indians placed six racers among the top eight in rolling 23-75-80 over Mt. Spokane and Southridge.
Rather than wait for a final sprint to get his win, Kimpel moved earlier in the race and held it to win in 15:52 over Andrew Gonzales of Southridge and Allan Schroeder of Mt. Spokane.
“It was a big step for Andrew today,” Knight said. “He’s been a little afraid, or didn’t realize how tough he is.”
Behind the trio came Leon Dean, Jeff Howard, Alex Avila, Adam Tyler and Steve Hicks between 16:03 and 16:23.
“We need to keep them together one more week, but we’re healthier now than we’ve been since Aug. 16,” Knight said.
Between them, NC and Mt. Spokane had 10 of the top-12 3A race placers.
3A girls: With Mt. Spokane’s Courtney Zalud finishing second to defending regional champion Lisa Olander of West Valley (Yakima) and two others finishing in the top 15, the Wildcats finished third in a tight team race.
Hanford won with 64 points, one point ahead of the WV Rams. Mt. Spokane scored 72 points.
Sophomore Sarah Craig finished fifth and Stephanie Inouye was 15th for last year’s second-place state finishers, who are making their third straight state trip.
Joining Mt. Spokane’s team are East Valley’s Lauren Bergam, and NC’s Rachel Ballard and Elizabeth Fall.