Pope easily grabs state cross country title

When Jeff Pope was a Valley Christian sophomore he thought there was a possibility he could win the State B high school cross country race before settling on third place.

“My legs gave out at the end and I was third by .001 of a second,” he said.

Last year his chances were better and he improved to second in a talented field.

“I came out strong and thought I had it until the top of the hill,” said Pope. “He had a better kick than I do.”

Despite admitting to nerves as this year’s favorite, Pope would not be denied this time, winning by a whopping 40 seconds to grab the top rung.

He timed a race record 16 minutes, 12 seconds and found himself looking back to see how large a lead he had in the final minute of the contest at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.

“I don’t like looking behind me when I’m so far ahead, but did glance because I thought they were closer than they were. When I saw my lead I was pretty excited,” Pope said.

Setting the pace is what he tried to do all year and it worked. He trained hard, up to 8 miles per day plus speed work. At state he liked the cool and damp weather.

“Everyone I ran with since I’ve been here (at Valley Christian) is still running today,” said Pope. “We all had to train harder.”

Pope’s training paid off with the easy title victory.

•West Valley’s Justin Degenhardt finished seventh to medal, and Michael White 19th in 2A boys, and Freeman’s Mackenzie DeRuyter was 13th in 1A girls. Krystal Hughes of West Valley was 15th in 2A, Jasmine Avala of Valley Christian took 16th in B, Stevie Gildehaus of University placed 18th among 4A girls, and Lauren Bergam of East Valley was 22nd in 3A.

Central Valley finished third in 4A girls, the Bears’ first trophy since the 1982 state title team.