A turned ankle may turn their fortunes at state, but this team still expecting a big day

For the first month and a half of the fall season, the Meridian boys cross country team looked poised to accomplish something it had never done before.

They had five strong runners at the top of their lineup, and it looked like almost nothing would get in the way of the Trojans claiming the first state championship in the program’s history.

But during the week leading up to the Northwest Conference Championships, coach Mike Holz said junior Jenson Ellars – the team’s No. 5 runner – “tweaked” an ankle.

“It’s too bad,” Holz said. “Jenson had been having a real good season for us.”

Despite that setback don’t count the Trojans out, yet. There’s still plenty of talent on this team, as evidenced by the team placing four runners in the top 11 at the Class 1A Bi-District Championships Saturday at South Whidbey, where the Trojans out pointed Northwest 71-85 to claim the bi-district title.

Holz said he believes it’s too early to count the Trojans out of competing for the 1A state title Saturday at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.

“I’m pretty excited about the possibility,” Holz said. “I don’t want to say we’re going to win, but we’ve got as good a shot as anybody. ... We need our fifth guy to be a little healthier or someone else to step up, but we definitely have a shot.”

The reasons for Holz’s optimism are easy to figure out – senior Kenny Barnes and juniors Abbas Theophilus, Jaskaran Dhatt and Nathan Schneider.

Barnes, obviously, has been the leader of the group, but he said this group hasn’t required all that much leadership.

“It’s weird being a senior,” he said. “We’re all pretty mature. It’s not like I have to be a parental figure for the team.”

But he has led the way on the course a number of times, including Saturday at the bi-district meet, when he finished third in 16 minutes, 50.03 seconds. Theophilus wasn’t far behind in fifth (17:00.80), with Dhatt in seventh (17;10.41) and Schnedider 11th (17:39.57).

Senior Henry Skaggs was Meridian’s fifth scoring runner, as he placed 45th in 18:53.03, while sophomore David Wallace was 56th in 19:16.06. On the sore ankle, Ellars finished 80th in 20:40.36.

With so much top-end talent, Holz said he’s seen his team pushing each other to get better. This summer, he said the juniors were actually running faster that Barnes, but all that did was inspire Barnes to work harder and get faster.

“I’m just a competitive person,” Barnes said. “It’s really exciting to me to have four guys that can push me to get better.”

If they can continue to push each other, Saturday could be pretty special for the Trojans.

“All of us just have to push as hard as we can and run our best race,” said Barnes, who finished on the podium last year at state with his ninth-place finish.

With the talent Meridian has, there’s a good chance he won’t be the only one celebrating on the podium Saturday, even if the Trojans don’t win a state title.

“I think all of them have a chance to run to the podium, individually,” Holz said. “If they run strong, it’s not outlandish. Kenny’s been there before and the other guys could be right there with him. The have a good chance to have a very special day Saturday.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 4:31 PM with the headline "A turned ankle may turn their fortunes at state, but this team still expecting a big day."