Cross country notebook: Coeur d’Alene takes fifth at national meet; St. George’s girls ranked first in 2B/1B

Finishing fifth in a cross country race usually doesn’t grab headlines.

What the Coeur d’Alene boys team did late Saturday night, though, is more than worth attention.

Coeur d’Alene took fifth in the sweepstakes race at the 43rd Woodbridge Classic in Irvine, California. No. 1-ranked Herriman of Utah won.

Herriman is the defending Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) champion. The 3-mile race featured 13 of the top 40 teams in the nation in Dyestat’s rankings, including eight of the top 25.

CdA senior Maximus Cervi-Skinner took third, finishing in a time of 13 minutes, 37.0 seconds – which bettered the national high school record by 1 second but was topped by the two runners who placed ahead of him.

The race was a tenth of a mile shorter than a 5K layout – or, more precisely, a 3-mile race is 4,828 meters, 172 short of 5,000.

“The course is designed to be smoking fast,” CdA coach Emry Roy said.

Cervi-Skinner’s time converted to 5K is 14:06.11. His fastest true 5K this season is 15:12.7 when he won the season-opening Timberlake Farragut Invitational, a race that saw Kade Brownell and Parker Westermann of Mt. Spokane fifth (16:00.8) and sixth (16:08.7), respectively.

Cervi-Skinner’s twin brother, Zachary, finished 11th (13:58.7) and sophomore Wyatt Carr was 20th (14:05.4) at Woodbridge.

Owen Powell of Mercer Island, a familiar runner to Greater Spokane League athletes, took the title at Woodbridge in 13:30.3. He captured the State 3A title last year.

Carr said Max Cervi-Skinner ran a spectacular race.

“He was amazing,” Carr said. “He ran tactically very strong. He went into the race knowing he had a chance to win. He came up a little short, but he put himself on a national stage.”

The sweepstakes finale was the final race of 52 that the meet stages with 15,415 athletes. Racing began Friday night, culminating with the sweepstakes Saturday evening. Carr said the final race began at 9:55.

CdA returned home Sunday afternoon. Not long after the race, Max Cervi-Skinner’s phone “was blown up with text messages,” Carr said.

The twins have previously received recruiting interest from Oklahoma State, Michigan, Wake Forest, Missouri, Arizona, Gonzaga and Santa Clara.

Now they’re fielding queries from Notre Dame, Oregon, Iowa and Tennessee, Carr said.

CdA was ranked eighth in the Dyestat poll posted last week. Crater (Oregon) was 11th but will likely jump ahead of CdA after finishing third at Woodbridge.

The CdA girls didn’t run in the sweepstakes, but they took second in the Varsity Gold A race. Junior Dakota Keyworth led the Vikings by placing third (17:41.2).

“The girls raced very well,” Carr said.

“We weren’t necessarily in the conversation last year (at state). We’re making headway this season.”

Early returns

It is expected the GSL boys championship will come down to a showdown the final week with Mt. Spokane and Cheney taking on Lewis and Clark at LC’s home course, Manito Park.

The teams faced off early at Farragut. CdA won handily with Mt. Spokane finishing second, LC fourth and Cheney fifth.

Cheney was competing without its top runner, senior Calvin Hilton. Coach Derek Slaughter expects Hilton to make his season debut at the Battle for the 509, a meet Cheney hosts Oct. 5 at the Spokane Polo Grounds.

“We’re just being cautious, because his goals are at the end of the season,” Slaughter said.

Mt. Spokane and LC, meanwhile, met Sept. 18 in a head-to-head dual they dubbed North versus South at Mountainside Middle School. Mt. Spokane won with 20 points, 15 ahead of LC.

Mt. Spokane was led by the 1-2-3 finish of Brownell (15:46.41), Westermann (16:03.26) and sophomore Gaitlin Michaelsen (16:16.89). Toby Meier led LC by finishing fourth (16:17.80).

Rankings

The third Washington Coaches’ rankings came out Sunday and area teams are faring well.

In boys, Mt. Spokane is second in 3A; LC is eighth in 4A and Mead is ninth; Lakeside is eighth in 1A; and Valley Christian is No. 1 in 2B/1B, followed by Garfield-Palouse (second), St. George’s (fifth) and Northwest Christian (10th).

In girls, Gonzaga Prep is fourth in 4A; West Valley is fifth in 2A; Lakeside is second in 1A; and St. George’s is No. 1 in 2B/1B, followed by Valley Christian (fifth), Chewelah (seventh) and Republic (ninth).

Tops in the state

There’s a reason the St. George’s girls are atop the 2B/1B rankings.

Actually two reasons – senior Josie McLaughlin and junior Regan Thomas. They have the two best times in the state among small-school athletes.

McLaughlin has a season-best 18:45 and Thomas is next at 19:26.

In fact, the top five times are from area athletes.

Going into this week, a pair of Gonzaga Prep runners have the top times in the area. Freshman Erin McMahon (18:26.4) leads the way in the girls and junior Zach Frasier (15:42.9) heads up the boys.

GSL openers

Wednesday marked the first of four weeks of duals for GSL runners.

Mt. Spokane’s boys (19) swept Shadle Park (50) and Ridgeline (66) at Shadle Park.

Brownell finished first in 16:16.9 to lead Mt. Spokane and Westermann took second (16:22.3).

In the girls, Mt. Spokane (30) edged Ridgeline (35) and downed Shadle Park (67).

Mt. Spokane’s Jane Wycoff won (19:29.8).