Royal boys, girls 2nd at Cowiche XC meet last week Middle school boys win their competition

ROYAL CITY – Both Royal High School cross country teams finished second in the small school division last weekend at the annual Apple Ridge Invitational.

The Royal Middle School boys took first, and the RMS girls took second at the same meet.

Apple Ridge, a 170-acre layout nestled in the middle of apple country with orchards surrounding the racers, is home to the SCAC District Meet and is used by high schools and colleges.

With temperatures in the low 70s and overcast skies, the stage was set for some fast early season times, and just more than 800 runners toed the line.

The Apple Ridge features a unique scoring system. Instead of one race with the top five varsity runners scoring points, Apple Ridge stages three different three-mile races. The top two athletes from each team in each race earn team points.

There were 16 teams in the small schools division. Royal’s boys finished behind Goldendale, and the Royal girls were runner-up to Zillah.

“Overall, I thought it was a good day, as it allowed us to see where we are at, and I thought the kids ran hard,” coach Ben Orth said. “We realized that we need to continue to advance our overall fitness and mental toughness in these challenging races.”

Leading the way in Race 1, the flat fast course, for the boys team was Victor Santillan (18th, 17:09). Scoring behind him was Victor Garcia (27th, 17:54). For the girls, the leaders were Gracelynn Miller (12th, 20:37) and Abigail Delay (14th, 21:07).

In Race 2, the District course, sophomore Alex Ramirez had a breakout race to help his team (27th, 17:56), and Eduardo Rodriguez (32nd 18:08) also scored team points. The girls were led by newcomer Ana Villafana (15th, 21:16) and Amanda Justo (26th, 23:01).

In Race 3, the hilly course, racers had the challenge of an extra climb. The boys team scorers were Silver Beltran (7th, 17:16) and Rudy Flores (11th, 17:43). For the girls, team scorers were Kay Lester (13th, 22:18) and Elizabeth Guadarrama (16th, 22:45).

“This is the site of Districts. So it is good for our team to have a chance to run here,” coach Lyndsy Roberts said. “There were some solid performances as well as opportunities for growth in the coming days.”

There were middle school races at this meet. Royal won the boys edition by placing its five top runners in the top 10. Yahir Morales won the individual championship (1.5 miles, 8:53). The RMS girls team captured a second place finish.

The Knights run again on Saturday at the Connell Invitational.