Bellingham, WA - We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day on Saturday, September 8th at the 9th Annual Sehome Cross Country Invite at Civic Stadium. A total of 34 schools were in attendance from Glacier Peak High School, to Mount Vernon Christian High School.
This invite is a unique one due to the fact it is a 2 mile course and you only run against people in your class. It is a great starting point for those who have never run 5k's before. Middle schoolers would run the farthest of 1.5 miles in cross country.
Bellingham's Annika Reiss was the only winner from Whatcom County winning the senior girl's race in a time of 11:34.36, a time that was 28 seconds faster than the 2nd place finish. This would be Reiss's 3rd Sehome Invite title after winning it her sophomore and junior year. Teammate Grace Much placed 7th in 12:38.63.
In the most anticipated senior boy's race, Sehome's Reed Smith (10:21.48) and Lucas Cunningham (10:28.44) placed 5th and 7th, while Lynden's Tate Hutchins (10:24.32) placed 6th. All three boys were with each other for the first half of the race, but then Smith broke away from the other 2 with about half a mile to go. Glacier Peak's Riley McDowell won the race in 10:08.19 and would have the fastest time of the day.
Rosie Kirker (2nd) from Sehome and Livi Lackland Henry (5th) from Bellingham placed in the top 5 in the junior girl's race running 12:08.87 and 12:34.48. Mount Baker's Juliette Haggith and Squalicum's Maria Solomon finished 18th and 20th in the same race with times of 13:45.19 and 13:46.33. Liberty Bell's Novie McCabe won the junior race in a time of 11:46.03.
Squalicum's top runner Joe Brodeur made some leaps over some great runners in the boy's junior race running 10:41.29 and placing 7th overall. Lynden's Isaiah Ellis finished not far behind Brodeur in 9th with a time of 10:43.26. Other top 20 finishers were Lynden Christian's John DenHartog (13th, 10:46.47) and Sehome's Jacob Alexander (15th, 10:51.2). Dallas Riddle-Stevens of Oak Harbor went on to win the junior race running 10:29.41.
Another tightly contested race was the sophomore boy's race and Whatcom County had a total of 6 finishers in the top 20. Leading the way was Ferndale's Landon Sturdevant finishing 4th in 10:57.62. Sehome's Roman Schroyer and Max Gargano went 8th (11:13.5) and 13th (11:23.18) for the Mariners. Nooksack Valley's Josh Steele placed 14th (11:23.77), followed by Nico Johnson (17th, 11:30.81) and Braedan Hart (20th, 11:34.79) of Mount Baker.
Arlington's Qunicy Fankhauser and Vincent Loftis go 1-2 for the Eagles in the sophomore race.
Ferndale had two top 20 placers in the sophomore girls race with Jaclyn Denham taking 5th in 12:57.67 and Elisa Herter placing 20th in 14:15.82. Sehome also had two top 20 placers with Isabelle Douglas placing 7th (13:03.27) and Emma Berreth placing 13th (13:53.24). South Whidbey young star Kaia Swegler Richmond ran 12:12.84 for the win.
Squalicum had 3 boys in the top 20 in the freshman race with Miles Bartlett leading the Storm with a 6th place finish running 11:30.15. Ben Latta placed 9th and Silas Shellito placed 18th for the Storm. Another 1-2 finish for the Arlington Eagles with Aiden Emerson winning in a time of 10:51.83 and Brandon Moore running 11:12.18.
More Squalicum freshmen put up great performances in the girls race as Laura Halsell finished 2nd in 12:57.23 and Grace Doud was 6th running 13:34.64. Lynden Christian's Simone Veltkamp and Maya Ewing were 11th and 18th in the race with times of 14:13.62 and 14:46.44. Eleeshiyah Faulkner of Blaine finished 8th, while Bellingham's Lily Koplowitz-Fleming was 20th.
Kamiak's Emma Arceo won the girls freshmen race in 12:47.28.
Interviews and photos can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/therunnerwa
More results can be found here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/144240/results
What's coming up?
On Wednesday, Sehome hosts Nooksack Valley and Lakewood at Lake Padden, Ferndale travels to Sedro-Woolley, and Blaine hosts Mount Baker, Squalicum, Lynden Christian at Peace Arch Park.
On Thursday, Lynden will host Bellingham, Burlington-Edison, and Meridian at Lynden High School.