Anticlimatic Highlander

The Highlander Invitational was a place for rivalries to continue, but there wasn’t much sizzle in the showdowns Saturday at Shadle Park High School.

None of the seven races came down to a homestretch sprint and the headline event, the varsity girls, was the biggest blowout of all.

Mead sophomore Baylee Mires whipped Shadle Park junior Andrea Nelson by 24 seconds, just three days after Nelson won their Greater Spokane League matchup.

“Baylee’s very talented and good, but I should have stuck with her,” said Nelson, who didn’t appear to be full strength but declined to make excuses. “Baylee had a heck of a race.”

Mires, who toured the 2.5-mile course in 14 minutes, 33 seconds, 20 seconds faster than her debut last year, ran on Nelson’s shoulder for about half the race and then left her in the dust.

“I didn’t expect that to happen,” Mires said. “Everyone has their race. … We’re just going to make each other better. We have one more year.”

Nelson finished in 14:57, 49 seconds slower than last year when she ran the third-fastest time on record. She was still 17 seconds ahead of Sandra Martinez of Davis High (Yakima) and it was another 19 seconds back to the next runner.

Davis won the team race with 95 points, followed by Deer Park at 134 and Mead at 135.

The boys are broken into classes and the senior race turned into a Columbia Basin rivalry while the junior race was a GSL battle.

Andrew Gonzales of Southridge (Kennewick) won the senior race in 12:29, 6 seconds ahead of Emmanuel Contreras of Davis. Gonzales’ time was No. 5 on the all-time senior list and 8 seconds faster than he was a year ago, when he ran the No. 3 junior time.

“I’ve been sick since Tuesday night. I had doubts I would be able to win,” Gonzales said. “As we came through the first mile I felt smooth … I had confidence I could win.”

Mead easily took the team title with 31 points, 45 ahead of Cheney.

The junior boys race was a breakthrough for Adam Thorne of Ferris, who put a gap on Mt. Spokane’s Allen Schroeder about a mile in and protected it all the way.

Schroeder had beaten Thorne in their first two Highlanders, including a sensational race last fall when Schroeder ran a sophomore-record 12:35 to beat Thorne by 3 seconds.

Thorne ran 12:42, beating Schroeder by 7 seconds.

Southridge won the team race with 43 points, nine ahead of Kamiakin and 10 in front of Ferris.

Kevin Bierig of Lewis and Clark won the sophomore race by 5 seconds in 13:18 and his Tigers finished second with 84 points, 34 behind University.

Anthony Armstrong of Kamiakin (Kennewick) obliterated the 17-year-old freshman record by 23 seconds, running 13:01. Shadle’s Nathan Weite was second in 13:05, also well less than the time of Shadle’s Casey Perry in 1993. Kamiakin also won the team title with 47 points, 30 better than Wenatchee.

A pair of Montanans dominated the combined girls race in record fashion. Sarah Holt of Missoula Big Sky ran 16:14 to beat Mesa Starkey of Polson by 5 seconds and the 2007 record of Polson’s Alex Noble by 12 seconds. The third-place runner, MacKenzie Deruyter of Freeman, finished in 16:55.

Mead’s Danielle Maldonado won the freshman race in 16:24, 18 seconds ahead of Lea Amsden of Central Valley, which had 34 points in the team scoring, eight better than Cheney.

•Lake City junior C.J. Helbling continued his winning ways, running away from the field at the annual Super-1/Farragut Invitational at Farragut State Park north of Coeur d’Alene.

Helbling won in a time of 16:43.6. Coeur d’Alene’s boys, led by runner-up Cody Curtis (17:20.9) won the A team title with 20 points, 29 ahead of runner-up Lake City.

Lakeside (Nine Mile) won the B boys race, finished with 35 points. Logos of Moscow and Timberlake tied for second (81).

Josh Alexander led Lakeside by finishing fourth (17:49.8).

In the girls, Coeur d’Alene sophomore Kinsey Gomez smoked the field, finishing in 19:23.9. Lake City senior Molly Mitchell took second (19:46.3), leading her team to the A title with 35 points. CdA was second (45).

Timberlake’s girls won the B championship with 44 points, three ahead of runner-up Lakeside.