Moses Lake Invitational sees Marsh reality

MOSES LAKE - A total of 17 high schools met up at Blue Heron

Park on Saturday for the Moses Lake Invitational and the host

Chiefs left the scene realizing that their early season prowess may

be more than a fleeting thing.

Over 400 athletes took to the course and in the end the Chiefs'

girls took fourth place while the short-handed boys squad ended up

in fifth.

MOSES LAKE - A total of 17 high schools met up at Blue Heron Park on Saturday for the Moses Lake Invitational and the host Chiefs left the scene realizing that their early- season prowess may be more than a fleeting thing.

Over 400 athletes took to the course and in the end the Chiefs girls took fourth place while the short-handed boys squad ended up in fifth.

It was another good performance for both the boy and girl Chief harriers today at our last home meet for the season," Moses Lake head coach Loren Childers said. "A large crowd was on hand to cheer on the Chiefs to great races."

A four-day break between events also paid dividends, according to Childers, who noted that his runners recorded better times than they had last Tuesday on the same course.

In the girls' competition, Ephrata claimed the title with four runners placed in the top 10.

Ephrata was led by Danielle Friend (second place, 20:28), Hannah Gunderson (seventh, 21:35), Morgan Sisson (eighth, 21:41), Kendall Hintz (10th, 21:47) and Taylor Barnes (24th, 23:06).

Moses Lake's Hannah Marsh (21:26) took fifth place while Julia Sherement ended up in 12th place (21:54).

Freshmen Cadence Goodwin, ran two minutes faster (22:22, 18th place) than she had earlier in the week to record the third fastest Chiefs time.

Madeline Wallace (23:04, 23rd place) and Jayne Goodrich (24:20, 39th place) closed out the top five finishing scores for Moses Lake.

"This was by far our best team effort of the season," Childers said.

Quincy girls ended up in sixth place while Othello ended up in ninth.

Quincy was led by Anne Francis (22:15, 15th), Alejandra Diaz (23:19, 29th), Marinda Talley (23:42, 34th), Jessica Esparza (23:58 36th), and Sarah Martinez (25:16, 51st).

Othello Lady Huskies' top finishers were Karen Guzman, Maribel Rodriguez, Janeth Ramos, and Araceli Flores.

Moses Lake's boys squad ran with two of its top runners out due to illness.

Hayden Wise (17:45) took top Chiefs honors with an 11th place finish while Dylan Darlington (18:38) ended up in 18th place.

Michael Sherement, who was filling in for the Chiefs' ill captain Taz Gaddis, placed as the third-best Moses Lake runner with a time of 19:22.

Nick Tripp ended up as the fourth strongest Chiefs runner.

"Overall, I was very pleased with our performance," Childers said.

Wenatchee won the boys' race while Ephrata finished second, Quincy third, Royal sixth, and Othello took ninth.

Leading the Ephrata Tigers were, Kyle Charles (17:57, 13th), Matthew Helsley (18:39, 20th), Colin Lowry (18:45, 24th), Kieran Rolfe (18:46, 25th), and Derik Burck (19:17, 33rd).

Quincy's top runners were, Adrian Ruiz (17:16, third), Salvador Lopez (18:39, 19th), Gabriel Martinez (19:18, 36th), Gerardo Guzman (20:00, 57th), and Christian Perez (20:08, 59th).

Top runners for Royal were Ethan Tonnemaker (17:19, fourth), Juan Jimenez (19:20, 37th), Marcos Quiroz (19:23, 39th, Trevor Mianecki (19:31, 43rd), and Jesus Peraza (19:36, 45th).

Alan Garza (18:27, 17th) led Othello and was followed by Antonio Estrada (19:13, 31st), Jose Cabrera (19:42, 49th), Jessie Villarreal (20:29, 64th), and Anthony Barrera (20:30, 65th).

Next week both Moses Lake varsity teams travel to Palo Alto, Calif. to race at the Stanford Invitational.