Royal XC season starts with 6th, 7th at Moses Lake

ROYAL CITY – Royal High cross country kicked of its season with sixth place for the girls and seventh for the boys at the sunny Moses Invitational last Saturday.

It was a good start for teams that expect to compete for hardware at the state 1A meet this fall. The girls and boys teams finished in ninth place at the State Championships a year ago.

Both teams return five of their top seven runners from those squads. And these teams are young.

Teams from the B ranks all the way up to 4A toed the starting line. The only 1A schools to beat the Knights in the boys race were Deer Park and Medical Lake which finished 1st and 2nd respectively at the state championships last year.

“I’m really pleased with both teams’ efforts so far,” coach Ben Orth said. “I really enjoy working with each one of these kids.”

Leading the way for the boys was junior Silver Beltran, who ran well and finished in 25th with a time of 18:28. Sophomore Rudy Flores was next for the Knights in 33rd (18:45), followed by sophomore Victor Santillan in 43rd (19:15).

Next for the Knights came junior Eduardo Rodriguez 53rd (19:45), senior Victor Garcia 56th, (19:58), senior Arturo Villa, 58th (20:07) and sophomore Martin Horta, 59th (20:09).

The girls team, led by senior Gracelynn Miller, had a strong showing with good pack running,” Orth said.

Miller finished in 18th overall (23:01), and sophomores Abigail DeLay and Anna Villafana worked the course together finishing in 29th and 30th (24:07 each). Other varsity finishers for the Knights included senior Caitlin Diaz (39th, 25:09). who had a tremendous finishing kick.

Then a came trio of freshman upstarts in Amanda Justo, 42nd (25:16), Emma Wilhelm, 46th (25:47) and Josie Phillips, 48th (26:14).

“Our girls team has a ton of potential and we look forward to watching their progress as they keep working hard. Really fun group,” coach Lyndsy Roberts said.

The Knights will travel next to the Apple Ridge Invitational this weekend in Cowiche.