Running kids prove they are champions

It's not easy to win a championship at anything. So you really have to appreciate what the Royal High School cross-country program pulled off last Thursday.

Royal won the boys and girls district championships on the same day. It was old hat for the boys, who claimed their fourth straight crown. But for the girls, it was new.

So new that even they were surprised they pulled it off. They had lost their regular season meet with Zillah, and the Leopards had won 10 straight titles.

The goal for the girls was to finish second because second place would get them to state. It was a realistic goal. The Knights had lost only to Zillah during the season.

On the other hand, it was not an easy goal. All of Wahluke's team, which went to state last year, was back, and Royal had won that regular season match by only two points. And Connell had outrun Royal at an invitational.

But something special unfolded early at district. The Royal girls started to run as if they wanted to win and kept Zillah within sight. When the coaches saw this, they changed the goal as the girls ran and started shouting it out.

The girls responded and ran an inspired race to the end and proved to themselves the value of pack running, as coached by their mentors Ben Orth and Lyndsy Roberts. Zillah took first place individually, but Royal took third, fifth, sixth, 11th and 13th.

Those finishes gave Royal 32 points in a sport in which the low number wins. Zillah got one point for first place, but the rest of its top five accumulated 43.

The Wahluke girls found out just how tough this district title proposition can be. They made it to state last year but missed this year by finishing third. The consolation for them is that one girl qualified individually.

The Wahluke girls would have qualified again except for some weird rule that only two girls teams could qualify while three boys teams did. I'm sure the WIAA has some reasonable explanation, but I won't buy it.

In this age of equality, the SCAC boys and girls should had the same number of qualifying teams. If I were a Wahluke cross-country girl, I'd be protesting.

Not to be left out, we need to congratulate the Royal boys team and the Wahluke boy who qualified individually.

As special as the Royal girls were at district, it must be noted the boys could be brewing something special at state. They could place for the first time since the championship of 2007.

Running in a tight pack, the top five finished within 18 seconds of each other, between 17:07 and 17:25 over the three-mile Highland High School course. They took third, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth.

There are some real good teams from elsewhere around the state, and Royal won't be favored at Pasco on Saturday. But if the Knights maintain their pack, they could do very well.