Gomez second at Sunfair

Annamarie Maag looked across Franklin Park at its infamous terraces and smiled now, intimidated no longer.

“That hill,” she said of her first encounter, “definitely looked impossible.”

Indeed, it was impossible – for anyone to stay with the Jesuit junior after she crested the formidable rise in Saturday’s 36th annual Sunfair Invitational cross country meet at Yakima.

Launching a breakaway at the mile mark, which resides at the top of that landmark hill, Maag raced unchallenged to the finish in the girls elite flight, which featured eight state champions and two former Sunfair champs.

Maag’s even mile splits of 5 minutes 51 seconds, 5:55 and 5:53 on the undulating 3-mile course produced an overall time of 17 minutes, 39 seconds, which ranks seventh on Sunfair’s all-time list.

Jesuit, making its Sunfair debut, won five of the seven varsity flights and scored 12 points, matching the meet record.

In complete control of second place was Kinsey Gomez, a junior from Coeur d’Alene. Matching her runner-up finish from two years ago, when she went on to win the Idaho state title as a freshman, Gomez clocked 17:55 for Sunfair’s 15th sub-18 performance.

“I was just so excited to be in this race,” she said. “I knew it was going to be fast and I wanted to be in there with a chance to break 18 minutes.”

Glacier Peak freshman Amy-Eloise Neale finished third in 18:16, leading her 3A team to second place behind Jesuit. Liz Brandon of Eagle, Idaho, was fourth in 18:20 and defending champion Baylee Mires of Mead was fifth in 18:26.

The Coeur d’Alene boys finished ninth overall behind strong finishes from David Norris and Cody Curtis. Norris took third in Flight 6 in a time of 16:00.8 and Curtis was 12th in the elite race finishing in 16:01.6.

Volleyball

•Non-league: Post Falls (19-4) took advantage of a slow start by Moscow (6-6) to win 25-13, 25-18, 20-25, 25-23 in a match between Inland Empire League teams in Post Falls. Talia Candler led the 4A Bears with 10 blocks, but the 5A Trojans held the edge from the service line, including eight aces by Andrea Mohney.

Boys soccer

•Intermountain League: St. Maries (7-8-1, 5-0) finished with 23 shots against Orofino (1-3, 0-3), but only needed one to hit the back of the net in a 1-0 win. Sergio Aria broke the scoreless deadlock in the 58th minute to give the Lumberjacks the final edge.

•Non-league: IEL 4A Sandpoint (11-1) pounded out 21 shots against Lewiston (2-8) in a 6-1 victory in 5A Lewiston. Daniel Anderson, the two-time defending IEL MVP, had three goals and three assists for the Bulldogs, while Tanner Williams added two goals and an assist. … Mac Stannard broke loose of the 5A Post Falls (7-4-2) defense twice for 4A Moscow (8-4-1, 3-1), scoring a pair of goals for a 2-0 road win.

Girls soccer

•Non-league: Kerry Moller scored twice for 4A Moscow (6-7-2), both on assists from Brooke Mosman, to knock off 5A Post Falls (3-10) 2-1 in Moscow. … 4A Sandpoint (8-4-2) looked to dominate early against 5A Lewiston (4-5-5) but could muster just one goal in the sixth minute by Ellie Engel and finished in a 1-1 tie. Lewiston knotted the game on a score by Colleen Ames in the 53rd minute.

The Yakima Herald contributed to this report.