Cross Country: Sequim sweeps key matchup with PA, PT

Port Angeles Rider girls no answer for Wolves’ depth

October 14, 2015 3:34 pm
Sequim’s Audrey Shingleton races to a fourth place finish as the Wolves sweep Port Angeles and Port Townsend in an Olympic League showdown on Oct. 7 in Port Townsend.
Sequim’s Audrey Shingleton races to a fourth place finish as the Wolves sweep Port Angeles and Port Townsend in an Olympic League showdown on Oct. 7 in Port Townsend.

Sequim Gazette staff

For Sequim’s boys, it was another stong finish. For SHS’s girls, it was a key win against a tough rival.

The Wolves’ cross country squads completed their Olympic League schedules unbeaten with a sweep of Port Angeles and host Port Townsend on Oct. 7, with the only the postseason remaining.

The Wolves’ girls, who lost to Port Angeles by 17 team points in 2014, upended the Riders this fall with 29 team points to Port Angeles’ 38 (low score wins); Port Townsend was third with 59 points.

PA sophomore Gracie Long led all girls with a 19:52 finish over the 5,000-meter course to edge Sequim senior Waverly Shreffler by about 17 seconds, but Sequim’s depth proved to be too much for the Riders.

SHS senior Audrey Shingleton (21:53) was fourth, sophomore Kiara Pierson took fifth (22:03) and junior Elizabeth Rosales was sixth (22:45). SHS seniors Emily Webb (23:55, 12th) and Alexis Cromer (24:12) closed out the win for Sequim.

Port Angeles’ girls won the league meet last season with Sequim taking second, but the Riders lost two of their top three runners from 2014.

On the boys’ side, Sequim dominated the varsity race, taking the top six spots and seven of the top eight.

Leading the way were seniors Brendon Despain, Chris Jeffko, Jackson Oliver and C.J. Daniels and freshman Ash Francis, who finished within a second-and-a-half of each other at 17:27 to 17:28.5.

Wendall Lorenzen (sixth, 17:44) and Christian Ash (eighth, 18:31) bookended Port Angeles freshman Cameron Butler’s seventh-place finish.

Looking ahead

Sequim runners are back in action at the Olympic League at Sequim’s The Cedars at Dungeness golf course on Oct. 22 with league 2A squads (Bremerton, Kingston, North Kitsap, North Mason, Olympic and Port Angeles) and 1A foes Klahowya and Port Townsend in attendance. The top five teams from league advance to the Westside Classic, the West Central District meet, set for Oct. 31 at American Lake Golf Course in Tacoma. There, the top five 2A girls teams and six 2A boys teams advance to the state 2A meet, slated for Nov. 7 in Pasco.