LC girls, NC boys finish GSL cross country season undefeated

Katie Thronson followed her coach’s strategy for two miles.

Then the Lewis and Clark junior pulled away Wednesday to lead the Tigers to their first Greater Spokane League championship in five years.

Thronson finished in 17 minutes, 47 seconds on the fast, flat course at Shadle Park High School as the Tigers (9-0) topped Shadle (15-50), North Central (21-38) and University (24-33).

“Our goal the first 2 miles was to sit and let Claire Dingus (U-Hi) lead and then we were going to see what we could do in the last mile and push ourselves then,” Thronson said. “Me and Abby Smith (LC) went to the lead and tried to see how much we could push each other.”

Thronson’s push propelled her to a 25-second margin over Smith.

“I tried to bring her with me, I kept on saying encouraging things but it was a pretty fast race in the end,” Thronson said. “I just had a lot of energy so I decided to go for it.”

Thronson has been the pacesetter for talented team. Six Tigers finished among the top 10.

LC coach Kevin Swaim praised his team. The Tigers had their sights set on the title after losing by a point to Mt. Spokane last year.

“The goal was to keep everybody together for two miles and then to see how we could blast it,” Swaim said.

Swaim is especially pleased with where is at with regionals nine days away.

“Katie showed what she’s capable of doing, and I think there’s plenty more there as we look at the next couple weeks,” Swaim said.

NC (8-1) and CV (8-1) finished tied for second.

The Indians treated the race as a glorified practice for the Bi-District meet against the Mid-Columbia Conference on Saturday at Mead. The top two boys teams and top two girls teams along with the top 14 individuals advance to a state-qualifying regional meet the following week against District 2 teams in Seattle.

In the boys, North Central (9-0) easily secured its seventh straight league title and ninth in the last 10 years.

The 10-time state champs rolled past Shadle (15-50), U-Hi (15-48) and LC (16-46).

Jacob Christner and Mohamed Ahmed led the usually tight-packed Indians. Christner pulled away in the final 300 meters, finishing seven seconds ahead in 15:20.

Moments after Christner crossed the finish line, his mom handed him a cell phone for the traditional call from his older brother, Jon.

Christner is returning to early season form. He injured a foot at the Bob Firman Invite in late September and took a week off. He spent that time in the swimming pool.

While the NC girls, who feature six freshmen among their top 10, wanted to run a controlled race, coach Jon Knight said his boys team needed to run all out.

“Coach wanted us to push as hard as we can because we haven’t had a huge test in a league meet in a while,” Christner said. “I was happy with how it went, especially with Mohamed. He caught up with me at one point. It’s definitely one of his best races ever.”

Knight has been pleasently surprised by Ahmed, a junior. He’s taken big strides this fall moving up from junior varsity.

“I was very happy. We came to race,” Knight said. “As (former Mead coach) Pat Tyson used to say, It’s harder to win the GSL title than the state meet.’ I think it’s true and we’re proud to do it.”