Washington State Cross Country Meet
When: 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6
2A races: Girls at 11 a.m., boys at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Sun Willows Golf Course, Pasco
Boys teams to watch: Sehome*, Sequim, Liberty-Issaquah, Lindbergh, Cedarcrest, Selah, Cheney, Ridgefield
Girls teams to watch: Liberty-Issaquah, Sehome*, Ephrata, Bellingham, Pullman, Ridgefield
* — defending champs
On the web: www.jcrawford.net/ccmain.html; www.wiaa.com/ardisplay.aspx?ID=912
Wind and rain and the best efforts of a team from Issaquah couldn’t keep Sequim’s boys from capturing their third West Central District title in as many seasons.
It also didn’t stop Sequim’s girls from earning return tickets to the state meet.
Both of Sequim High School’s cross country squads are headed east to Pasco after posting top-five finishes at the Westside Classic at American Lake Veterans Golf Course in Tacoma on Saturday.
For Sequim’s boys, it was a nail-biter only in that district champ Andrew Cooper and the Liberty-Issaquah squad nearly edged out the Wolves for the team title.
But strong efforts from Jackson Oliver (sixth place, 17:08), Brendon Despain (eighth, 17:13), Ash Francis (ninth, 17:19), Wendall Lorenzen (14th, 17:43) and Chris Jeffko (17th, 17:47) gave
Sequim 54 team points, edging Liberty by a single point. Sequim beat Liberty by 40 points (55 to 95) in 2014.
On the girls’ side, senior Waverly Shreffler led the charge with a third-place finish with a 20:33 finish — about 15 seconds behind district champ Feven Fessehatzion of Lindbergh — and got plenty of help as Sequim placed fifth, earning the last district girls seed to state.
Aiding the SHS cause was Audrey Shingleton (26th, 22:18), Kiara Pierson (28th, 22:25), Elizabeth Rosales (43rd, 23:22) and Emily Webb (52nd, 23:59).
It’s the first time the Sequim girls have advanced as a team to the state final since 2008.
Last season, Sequim finished one spot short of state.
This time around, Sequim’s boys and girls both get to toe the line at the state cross country meet on Nov. 7 Sun Willows Golf Course, the first time both Sequim squads have qualified for state since 2008, when Sequim’s girls took fourth place and the boys were 11th.
