‘Personal bests’ galore for XC runners in Westport

The girls second place team finish was helped by eighth and ninth place overall finishs from junior Eliza Bannister (20:54) and freshman Estella Sheldon (21:22). The IHS boys second place team finish was thanks in part to the ninth, 10th and 11th place overall finishes of Marcos Mendoza, Daniel Whiting and Ben Brownlee, respectively. Mendoza set a new PR on the 2.95 mile course of 16:54.0.

With the shorter course, Mendoza said he wanted to max out on speed throughout the race.

“I know that when I ran a 3-mile course earlier in the season, I was running closer to a 6-minute mile base, and today I just went out at like 5:20,” he said, noting that the mostly dry course conditions were nice too. “There were a few puddles, but the kind of shoes I wear are really light, so as soon as you hit a puddle it doesn’t feel like 50 pounds on your feet.”

Whiting, a freshman, came in one second ahead of Brownlee, a senior, in 17:07.

The league meet is unlike others, in that the runners are competing more against their own team, due to the fact that only the top seven runners from each school advance to the District IV meet in Onalaska on Oct. 29.

Also making the cut to district for the boys were freshmen Cody Lowe (17:47) and Tristan Trudell (18:33) and sophomores John Glenn (18:33) and Ghannon Wheldon (19:20). For the girls, freshmen Katelynn Wheldon (21:50) and Alex Carper (21:59), senior Isabel Benenati (23:20), and freshmen Dominique Bittner (23:27) and Carolyna Mendez (23:28) will be headed to district as well.

Coach Taylor said the meet played out pretty much the way she had expected.

“We were very competitive. On the girls team the top three or four have been pretty consistant, but the rest have kind of been all over the place,” she explained. “On the boys side, our top five have been pretty consistent. Tristan (Trudell) has been making massive improvements all year. He’s really a one to watch.”

With their team consisting of only five girls, the entire Naselle High XC squad knew they were bound for district before the gun even fired Thursday. Senior Rachel Disch was the Comets top finisher in 22:06, a PR time, followed by exchange student Lia Willenbrock in 22:46.

Sophomore Lindsay Hunt took an unusual route to her third-best team time of 24:18.

“There was this girl in front of me and I was so focused on catching her and she went the wrong way, and I went with her,” she said. “Some other girls went too. And then I realized it and I yelled ‘We’re going the wrong way!’ And she turns around and goes ‘Crap!’ and starts sprinting, and I go running after her. That was awful.”

Rounding out the NHS team were Micah Cenci (25:04.5) and Kim Gonzalez (28.13).

NHS coach Scott Smith said he was happy with how his team did after the meet.

“I’m really pleased. I thought they ran really hard. They ran hard from the start to the finish,” he said.

Naselle was not only the smallest team on hand Thursday, they were also the only 1B team at the 2B Pacific League meet. However, the coach said he didn’t really mind.

“There’s not enough 1B schools to warrant a league meet. And we compete with (the same runners) at district to go to state,” said Smith.

The District IV 1B/2B cross country championship will take place Saturday, Oct. 29, at Onalaska High School. The girls race begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by the boys race at 11:15 a.m.