Before the cancellation of weekend meets throughout Washington due to the snowmageddon that hit every corner of the state, Tuesday through Thursday meets were a go and plenty of schools and their athletes made their season debuts.
Here is your week two recap for your top teams and individuals for high school cross country.
Team of the Week: Anacortes Boys
Northwest Conference cross country action kicked off in Skagit County with the TigerHawk rivalry between the Anacortes Seahawks and the Burlington-Edison Tigers.
The Anacortes boys scored a perfect 15 points and had all seven varsity runners in front of Burlington's No. 1 to win by 35 points over the Tigers. Alek Miller led all Seahawk runners with his first-place run and personal best time of 10:53 for the two-mile race.
Finishing in the top five scoring as well for the Seahawks were Blake Martens (11:04, 2nd), Michael Hanrahan (11:16, 3rd), Ryan Horr (11:21, 4th), and Wolfgang Strochschein (11:26, 5th).
Performance of the Week: Washougal's Elle Thomas
There's a new up and coming runner in Washington making an immediate impact for the Washougal Panthers and it's freshman Elle Thomas.
In her first high school race last Wednesday, Thomas picked up the first of many wins to come in her high school career running a 5k personal best time of 18:55, winning by almost 50 seconds over her own teammate.
Thomas also led the Panthers to a dominating 16-46 team performance over the R.A. Long Lumberjacks.
Before high school, Thomas was a two-time USATF National Junior Olympian participant in middle school and has run a personal best 1,500 and 3,000-meter times of 4:55.4 and 10:38.1.
Race of the Week: Washougal's Samuel Grice and Woodland's Joran Lamoreaux
It was veteran Joran Lamoreaux of Woodland and rookie Samuel Grice of Washougal that went down to the wire.
In favor of the veteran, Lamoreaux defeated Grice in his high school debut by .17 tenths of a second running a 5k personal time of 16:38.4, which was 44 seconds faster than his previous personal best from his sophomore season.
Meet of the Week: Camas Girls vs. Union Girls
The Camas girls are a team to watch this season with plenty of young talent, but they were tested in their first meet against the Union Titans.
Led by sophomores Natalie Peddie (19:09, 1st) and Gracie Buzzell (19:15, 2nd), the Papermakers secured a one-point win over the Titans by a score of 28-29 for the 5k race despite only having four runners in the top 10.
Alyson Robertson and Jenna Lukowiak played key roles in Camas' win running times of 20:14 and 21:53 to place fourth and ninth. Erin Mitchell was the fifth runner for Camas placing 12th running 22:46.
The Titans had six runners place in the top 10 with Charlotte Wilson taking third overall running a personal best time of 19:43.
Jaylyn Lehner (20:26, 5th), Emily Thompson (20:51, 6th), Emily Rosenkranz (21:04, 7th), and Claire Reeburgh (21:14, 8th) were scorers for Union.
Other Top Performances:
2019 1B/2B cross country state champion and Ilwaco's own Daniel Quintana opened his junior season with a win in a dual versus Ocosta running 16:46 for the 2.95-mile course.
Skyview's Samantha Williams, who was fifth at the 4A State Cross Country Meet in 2019, was fourth for her team in a dual versus Battleground running 21:15.9 for the 5k race. Teammate Lauren Amato was first running a personal best time of 20:24.9.