Elma, Montesano win at league championship cross country meet

ELMA–Elma and Montesano’s cross country teams won team titles at the 1A Evergreen League Championship meet on Thursday at the Oaksridge Golf Course in Elma.

Montesano runners swept the individual races, with senior Benny Anderson claiming his second boys league championship and freshman Kamille Vandevender winning her first title in the girls race.

Anderson held off a push from defending league champion in Elma junior Frank Roberts to cross the finish line with a time of 16:25.89, winning his first league title since he bested the field two seasons ago.

“This whole season, I’ve just been thinking about league, district and state,” Anderson said. “Looking at the competition and just kind of mentally preparing myself, I’ve been a wreck the past two weeks. … (Winning) is so much relief.”

Anderson makes up one third of league runners that includes Roberts and Hoquiam’s Ryker Maxfield, that are consistently finishing in the top three of league meets over the past three seasons.

As the lone senior of that group, Anderson said one of his primary motivators entering the last cross country meets of his prep career was fear, specifically a fear of failure.

“We were coming around with like 0.3 (of the race left) and I was thinking, ‘I can’t do this. There is no way I’m catching him. He’s slowly picking up the pace,” Anderson explained. “We hit the last 200 meter and I thought, ‘Just suck it in and go.’ I passed him and felt him speeding up a bit as I passed him and I thought, ‘He’s going to be kicking against me.’ It’s the worth feeling in the world when your sprinting all out and someone just passes you. So I was just running out of fear the last 200 meters.”

“I told Frank (Roberts), ‘If you’re going to get Benny, you’ve got to get him with about 400-500 meters (to go). You’ve got to take it and continue going, you can’t let up. Obviously, it was easier to follow and outkick than it was to lead and outkick.”

After placing third as the defending league champ a season ago, Anderson said last year’s race was “a wake-up call,” after he admitted he was over confident after having won as a sophomore.

Now, in his senior season, he said he plans to end on a high note.

“It’s my senior year and I thought I want to go out with a bang and PR a bunch,” he said. “I want to win as many meets as I can.”

In his first race back from a stress fracture that had him out of competition for several weeks, Roberts placed second with a time of 16:33.74.

Roberts led four Eagles in total to make the top 10, with junior Luis Torres, senior Ashton Brown and sophomore Carter Arnold finishing 8-10 to give Elma its first boys team title since 2007 with 43 points.

“I think the key was our depth and our strength,” Elma head coach Dave Beeler said, who previously coached Hoquiam’s Jane Roloff to a state championship two seasons ago. “I praise my team. Luis ran incredible with a PR. Ashton and Carter ran great races. … Our depth really took control in the middle of the top 10. We had kids that were 35th last year that finished ninth today with 2:30 minute PR over last year. They’re working hard and kind of bought into the system I have. … It’s fun watching the Hoquiam kids and cheering them on too.”

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano freshman Kamille Vandevender placed first in the girls varsity race at the 1A Evergreen League Championships on Thursday at the Oaksridge Golf Course.

In the girls race, Vandevender proved why she has been the top runner out of the league all season long, breaking 20 minutes with a time of 19:47.64 to lead Montesano to the girls team championship.

“It’s really exciting. I really just wanted to break 20 this race, that was my goal and I did it as a freshman,” said Vandevender, who led the race wire to wire. “The strategy was to just race hard, not give up and really try to break 20.”

Monte junior Zoe Ray placed second (21:27.68) followed by freshman Samantha Lubinus (4th), junior Alice Nelson (6th) and sophomore Emily Anderson (7th) to earn the Bulldogs the team championship with 18 points.

“The team ran great today,” Vandevender said. “Everyone tried really hard and we really came out to try to win this race. It means a lot and it’s very exciting.”

The top 10 runners in both the boys and girls races earn all-league honors.

Twin Harbors athletes on the boys side also named all-league were Hoquiam’s Ryker Maxfield (3rd), Junior Soto (5th) and Zeke James (7th).

A pair of Elma Eagles earned all-league nods in the girls races as Braelyn McGinn (8th) and Destiny Whipple (9th) placed in the top 10.

The 1A/2A District 4 Championships is scheduled for Thursday at the Lewis River Golf Course in Woodland.

Full results available at athletic.net.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD The Elma Eagles boys cross country team of (from left) Carter Arnold, Ashton Brown, Frank Roberts, Luis Torres, Civil Smith and head coach Dave Beeler won the 1A Evergreen League title for the first time since 2007 on Thursday at the Oaksridge Golf Course in Elma.

Results

Boys team standings: 1, Elma 43. 2, Tenino 55. 3. Hoquiam 63. 4, Montesano 65. 5, Roches ter 124.

Boys individual standings: 1, Benjamin Anderson, Montesano, 16:25.89. 2, Frank Roberts, Elma, 16:33.74. 3, Ryker Maxfield, Hoquiam, 16:41.55. 4, Carter Mounts, Tenino, 17:11.03. 5, Junior Soto, Hoquiam, 17:17.81. 6, Josiah Marzolf, Tenino, 18:16.30. 7, Zeke James, Hoquiam, 18:24.40. 8, Ricardo “Luis” Torres, Elma, 18:32.23. 9, Ashton Brown, Elma, 18:35.72. 10, Carter Arnold, Elma, 18:38.84. 11, Sevrin Mickelson, Tenino, 18:43.50. 12, Kian Christiansen, Rochester, 18:45.15. 13, Owen Young, Montesano, 18:51.77. 14, Civil Smith, Elma, 18:56.01. 15, Justin Schlesner, Tenino, 18:56.59. 16, Colton Sweet, Montesano, 19:04.25. 17, Alexander Bale, Montesano, 19:13.33. 18, Hayden Sweet, Montesano, 19:38.58. 19, Porter Mowry, Tenino, 19:42.19. 20, Darien Nelson, Tenino, 20:03.29. 21, Joey Goodenough, Hoquiam, 20:17.25. 22, Kian Ray, Montesano, 20:28.97. 23, Fredy Martinez Ramirez, Elma, 21:05.51. 24, Clarke Hanna, Tenino, 21:08. 25, Weston Frank, Tenino, 21:09.29. 26, Bruce Phillips, Rochester, 21:11.17. 27, Nicholas Blankenship, Rochester, 21:14.39. 28, Ethan Mathews, Hoquiam, 21:44.21. 29, Nathan Pye, Tenino, 21:51.89. 30, Taylor Lund, Elma, 22:04.53. 31, Diego Morales, Elma, 22:23.08. 32, Colton Huber, Tenino, 22:31.43. 33, Zachariah Hubbard, Rochester, 22:32.73. 34, Dustin Stewart Jr., 22:34.41. 35, Pepper Holcomb, Elma, 23:19.32. 36, Nathan Beauregard, Elma, 23:21.29. 37, Etham Salisbury, Tenino, 24:12.24. 38, Luke Kennedy, Tenino, 24:31.45. 39, Conner Uy, Tenino, 24:51.93. 40, Cadence White, Montesano, 24:52.23. 41, Jaxton Reese, Rochester, 24:54.27. 42, Dawson Williams, Tenino, 24:54.66. 43, Ross Kershaw, Tenino, 25:14.97. 44, Roman Hanson, Elma, 26:17.00. 45, Zac Werdahl, Elma, 27:21.68.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD The Montesano girls cross country team (from left) Samantha Lubinus, Emily Anderson, Alice Nelson, Sofia Penjakova, Kamille Vandevender, Zoe Ray and Anna O’Conner won the 1A Evergreen League team title at the 1A Evergreen League Championships on Thursday at the Oaksridge Golf Course.

Girls team standings: 1, Montesano 18. 2, Tenino 52. 3, Elma 57.

Girls individual standings: 1, Kamille Vandevender, Montesano, 19:47.64. 2, Zoe Ray, Monteasno, 21:27.68. 3, Haley Huber, Tenino, 22:14.32. 4, Samantha Lubinus, Montesano, 22:25.77. 5, Kenzie Blankenship, Rochester, 22:30.77. 6, Alice Nelson, Montesano, 22:31.53. 7, Emily Anderson, Montesano, 22:33.81. 8, Braelyn McGinn, Elma, 22:34.02. 9, Destiny Whipple, Elma, 22:49.85. 10, Samantha Smith, Tenino, 23:10.61. 11, Anna O’Conner, Montesano, 23:27.02. 12, Ari Longmire, Rochester, 24:39.40. 13, Hannah Schlesser, Hoquiam, 25:06.59. 14, Seraschel Aldrich, Rochester, 25:09.71. 15, Aurora Johnson, Tenino, 25:15.35. 16, Chloe Suess, Tenino, 25:17.35. 17, Jordan Trudell, Elma, 25:51.79. 18, Juliet Lisle, Hoquiam, 26:39.85. 19, Chelsey VanBlargan, Elma, 26:40.21. 20, Aldeen Olvera-Obi, Hoquiam, 26:42.48. 21, Alicia Horton, Elma, 27:37.97. 22, Bree Benner, Rochester, 27:56.32. 23, Sofia Penjakova, Montesano, 28:43.99. 24, Athena Causland, Tenino, 29:00.46. 25, Lindzey Whitney, Elma, 34:36.12. 26, Isabel Steketee, Tenino, 36:51.02. 27, Olivia Hilton, Tenino, 37:35.23. 28, Quinn Nesmith, Elma, 41:11.59. 29, Dannie Bayne, Tenino, 42:16.91.