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POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

PREP GIRLS' CROSS COUNTRY: Sehome claims fourth straight team title

In the end, it really wasn't Northwest District rival Cedarcrest that the Sehome girls' cross country team had to worry about in its quest for a fourth straight Class 2A state title.

Old foe Ruby Roberts and the team from Kingston? Now, that was a different story.

Despite a 1-2 finish by Roberts and younger sister Marina, Sehome managed to hold off the surprising Buccaneers by two points, 57-59, on Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco to bring the state championship trophy back to Bellingham for a fourth consecutive year and the fifth time overall. Sehome becomes only the third girls' program to win four straight titles, regardless of classification, joining the 1994-97 Spokane East Valley teams and King's, which won its fourth straight 1A title a little earlier in the morning.

Cedarcrest, the team that the Mariners had been watching closely all season after it returned its entire state roster from its runner-up effort to Sehome last year, finished a distant third with 105 points, while Bellingham was sixth with 180.

"The whole time we've been targeting Cedarcrest," Sehome senior Annie Moore said in a phone interview. "Before the race, we said, 'Watch the people in grey and pick them off.' But that team in maroon kind of crept up on us."

Kingston and Sehome each had their top three runners finish in the top 10 scoring positions, but Kingston's three runners all placed higher than Sehome's top three - first, second and eighth.

Moore was Sehome's top placer in fourth place in 19 minutes, 4 seconds, giving her her fourth straight top-10 finish at state. Junior Mimi Krieger made a key late pass of Kingston's Ramona Morshead to finish 10th overall and seventh among runners that factored into the team race with her 19:32, while sophomore Jaden Duffy finished 14th overall and 10th in the team scoring with a 19:38.

Cedarcrest had only one runner in the top 10 - sixth-place Cara Strodel.

"We started celebrating after the race, because we knew we had beat Cedarcrest," Sehome's No. 4 runner Katie Delahunt said. "Then all of a sudden we saw that Kingston had come out of nowhere, and we weren't that sure any more. But the truth is, I don't think we could have run any better."

Delahunt and No. 5 runner Natalie Anderson certainly couldn't have. Delahunt's 18th-place finish (13th in team scoring in 19:58) and Anderson's 30th-place finish (23 in team scoring in 20:12) made the difference. Kingston's final two scoring runners finished in the 19th and 29th places.

"We had a huge jump from our 4 and 5 runners," Sehome co-coach Kevin Ryan said in a phone interview. "Katie and Natalie ran just great races."

But that's exactly what the Mariners have come to expect from their Nos. 4, 5, 6 and even 7 runners.

"Our top seven has not been stable all season long, because we keep having runners step up and run strong for us," said Krieger, who recorded her second consecutive top-10 finish. "We have so many runners on this team that can run 4, 5, 6 or 7, and it's just a matter of who will run strong that day."

The strong runs by Delahunt and Anderson on Saturday helped make Moore one of three girls' runners in the state to be a part of a team champion all four years of her high school career and the only one to do so and be a top-10 finisher all four years.

"I'm speechless right now," Moore said. "I'm so happy for the support system I've had with this team the last four years, and I think the fact that we were able to do this shows just how hard everyone involved with the program has worked."

Hard work also paid off for Squalicum freshman Brittany Gappa, who placed ninth individually with her time of 19:28.

Gappa said that the lead pack split in two about 11/2 miles into the race, and she stayed right behind the top eight runners.

"I was in the middle when it split, and I just followed the two girls in front of me - one in red, one in black," Gappa said in a phone interview. "The one in black finished in eighth (Ephrata's Danielle Friend), and I just rode with her the entire way. I felt good until about two miles out, and then I just forced myself to stay with her."

Storm teammate Molly Rider finished in 15th (19:46) to give Squalicum two runners on the podium.

Bellingham's top finisher was sophomore Molly Leischner in 17th place, just missing the podium with a time of 19:57, while Allie Reynolds finished 21st in 20:02.

Blaine's Kiersten Sigfusson finished 23rd with her time of 20:09, while Hannah VanZanten was 54th in 20:55.

Ruby Roberts won her second individual title in three years with a time of 18:06 in a race that was a bit quicker from the start than last year's.

"I liked the pace a lot better this year," Moore said. "Last year we got out too slow, and I got a little impatient. But this year was better. I was able to find the right pace and run my race."

Reach David Rasbach at david.rasbach@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2271.

CLASS 2A STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

At Pasco

5,000 meters

Team scores: 1. Sehome 57, 2. Kingston 59, 3. Ceadarcrest 105, 4. Cheney 120, 5. Deer Park 174, 6. Bellingham 180, 7. Ephrata 187, 8. Riverside 188, 9. Lakewood 218, 10. Interlake 230, 11. Yakima East Valley 328, 12. Ellensburg 343; 13. R.A. Long 349; 14. Hockinson 352, 15. Washougal 370; 16. Black Hills 372.

Individual top 10: 1. Ruby Roberts (Hockinson) 18:06; 2. Marina Roberts (Hockinson) 18:38; 3. Sanne Holland (Cheney) 18:49, 4. Annie Moore (Sehome) 19:04; 5. Rhiannon Alexander (Granite Falls) 19:15; 6. Cara Strodel (Cedarcrest) 19:17; 7. Rici Morril (Sultan) 19:22; 8. Danielle Friend (Ephrata) 19:23; 9. Brittany Gappa (Squalicum) 19:28, 10. Mimi Krieger (Sehome) 19:32.