Royal wins 7th consecutive district title girls place second
From left, the district runner-up girls are Maria Martinez, Isabel Quiroz, Meaghan Mianecki, Anahi Gomez, Gracelynn Miller, Kay Lester, Abigail Delay, Leslie Moreno, Elizabeth Guadarrama and Caitlin Diaz.
COWICHE — The South Central A Conference district high school cross country meet at Apple Ridge Run last Thursday turned out about the way it was predicted.
The Royal High boys won their seventh straight title.
The Royal girls finished second to a really tough Zillah team.
And Wahluke qualified one boy and one girl for state.
Both Royal teams and Wahluke’s individual qualifiers will run at state this Saturday. The state meets are held at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
The Warrior girls had a good meet overall. They finished third, and there are several underclassmen on the team. They should give Zillah and Royal some good competition next year.
In the girls race, Zillah’s Alexis Redfield was just plain super human. She finished one minute before the second-place girl and two minutes ahead of the third-place finisher, both from Zillah.
Royal took second place by running in a tight formation. The five girls who scored finished between sixth and 16th.
Sophomore Kay Lester led the way with a clocking of 20:16.1 for sixth place. Elizabeth Guadarrama came in seventh five seconds later.
Third for the nights, in 10th place, was Gracelynn Miller in 20:51.7. Meghan Mianecki finished 13th in 21:03.9, and Abigail Delay took 16th in 21:09.3.
The sixth and seventh Knights, Caitlin Diaz and Anahi Gomez, took 20th and 22nd with times of 21:57 and 22:14.4. All of the top seven will run at state.
The Wahluke girls had a good meet, trailing only Zillah with 35 points and Royal with 52. The Warriors posted an 84.
The Warriors were led by sophomore Jessica Arellano, who took eighth with a time of 20:24.1 and made it to state. Not far back in 14th was senior Stephanie Juarez, who was nursing a leg injury.
The other runners for Wahluke were sophomore Alma Valence in 18th, senior Lupe Abaca in 21st, freshman Stephanie Valdespino in 23rd, sophomore Jennifer Navarrete in 28th and freshman Maria Sanchez in 39th.
The Royal boys dominated their race, topping second-place Connell, 46-92. Zillah was third with 112.
The individual boys race was won by Dillon Rising of Goldendale in a time of 16:01.6. Second, and qualifying for state, was Wahluke’s senior Eduardo Valdenea. He finished in 16:42.5.
Then came Royal with its tight-running pack. Junior Victor Garcia took third in 16:58.6, and freshman Rodolfo Flores was fourth in 16:59.4. Freshman Victor Santillan took eighth in 17:20.0, senior Cristian Garcia captured 13th in 17:29.8 and sophomore Eduardo Rodriguez grabbed 18th in 17:50.6.
“Victor Santillan ran a tremendous race,” Orth said. “He is such a tough kid and a true competitor. What he lacks in racing experience he makes up for in guts. He passed two runners down the home stretch to place in the top eight.”
“Senior Cristian Garcia sure has come a long way since his freshman year,” Orth said, “and he did a fine job to finish in 13th. Eduardo Rodriguez came in 5th for the team and 18th overall to help secure the District Championship.”
Royal’s sixth and seventh boys, sophomore Silver Beltran and junior Arturo Villa, took 21st and 22nd respectively, clocking 17:52.1 and 18:00.2.
“I think both of our teams raced pretty well at Districts. The boys came in as the favorites and ran in a fashion that demonstrated their ability,” coach Ben Orth said. “Victor Garcia (3rd overall) and Rudy Flores (4th overall) really anchored our team. They essentially ran the whole race stride for stride together and kept moving farther out ahead of the chase pack. Their one-two punch really helped.”
On the girls end, the ladies did a nice job,” Orth said. “We actually ran better against Zillah in this race then we did at League.”
Kay Lester and Elizabeth Guadarrama helped anchor the girls team finishing in sixth and seventh overall. Gracelynn continued her consistent ways and earned 10th.
The runner who really popped a fantastic race was senior Meghan Mianecki who finished in 13th with her best time of the year (21:03). Orth believes experience on the course and a strong desire to race well aided her efforts.
“Freshman Abigail Delay just keeps getting better and better and she really helped the girls by finishing as our number five in 16th place overall,” Orth said. “She was about a minute and a half faster at Districts on this course then she was when we raced a league meet here about a month ago. Caitlin Diaz (20th) and Anahi Gomez (22nd) helped by adding team points to our opponents.”