Nooksack’s Murphy wins girls district title to highlight big day

Nooksack Valley’s Amy Jo Murphy successfully defended her Class 1A District 1-2 Girls’ Cross Country title on Saturday, Oct. 31, at South Whidbey to highlight a strong day by Whatcom County teams.

Murphy helped the Pioneers join Lynden Christian and Meridian by qualifying for next weekend’s state championships in Pasco, while the Trojans were the only area team to qualify on the boys’ side.

The bi-district will send its top four finishing teams on each side from Saturday’s race plus any other individuals that finished among the top 20.

Earning individual bids to state were Mount Baker’s Natalie Smith on the girls’ side and teammate Zak Kelly, Lynden Christian’s Eric Steiger, Josh Lingbloom and Brooks DeWaard and Nooksack Valley’s Conner Jones on the boys’ side.

But the run of the day definitely belonged to Murphy, who will head to state for the fourth time after turning in a time of 19 minutes, 11.56 seconds — more than 20 seconds faster than second-place Isa Meyers (19:32.44) and the fastest time of the day by a girls runner in any classification.

“It was a picture-perfect run,” Nooksack Valley coach Collin Buckley said in a phone interview. “She went out and ran a really smart race, working with Meyers from Northwest. With about a mile to go, she decided to go, and she took off. She hit the track and looked real good.”

Murphy wasn’t alone in having a good day for Nooksack Valley, as Alyce Harlan finished 10th in 21:02.58 and Pearl Morris was 14th in 21:13.44 to help the Pioneers claim fourth with 96 points.

“I think Amy’s most excited about bringing the whole girls’ team with her to state this year,” Buckley said.

Northwest won the team title with 52 points, beating out Lynden Christian’s 83. The Lyncs had all five scoring runners place in the top 26 — Sarah Ball (13th in 21:08.51), Brianna Bruneau (15th in 21:18.88), Brandy Bruneau (16th in 21:20.15), Taylor Ten Pas (23rd in 21:36.95) and Brooke Berendsen (26th in 21:47.13).

Meridian was right behind in third with 85 points, as Ashlee VanDenTop (fifth 20:28.13), Dena Andrushenko (ninth in 20:53.33) and Mimi Meggison (12th in 21:07.23) all had strong runs. Meggison will be making her fourth appearance at state on a team that will send four freshmen.

“I’m really proud of our girls,” Meridian coach Mike Holz said. “We only had nine girls come out this year, and we’re taking every one of them. They earned it.”

Smith placed eighth in 20:46.82 to earn her second trip to state for a Mount Baker team that just missed qualifying by finishing fifth with 143 points..

Steiger was Whatcom County’s top boys’ finisher, as he placed fourth in 17:14.47 behind race winner Tibebu Proctor of Northwest (15:54.53). Steiger was one of three Lyncs to qualify individually, joining Lingbloom (11th in 17:38.74) and DeWaard (16th in 17:51.35), as LC placed sixth.

Meridian, which placed third behind district champion King’s (108 points) and Northwest (122) with 126 points, was led by Kenny Barnes in 10th with a time of 17:35.85. Derek Holz finished 13th in 17:46.96.

“I felt going into race we had to race perfectly,” Holz said. “We did really well. The first mile we were back in the pack a bit, but our plan was to run our 5K pace and then come on strong in the second half. They followed the race strategy perfectly, and because of that, we had a good race today.”

Nooksack Valley finished eighth but Jones advanced by finishing eighth in 17:33.84, while Mount Baker was 11th and saw Kelly advance as a freshman with his ninth-place finish in 17:35.38.

CLASS 1A DISTRICT 1-2 BOYS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS

CLASS 1A DISTRICT 1-2 GIRLS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Nooksack’s Murphy wins girls district title to highlight big day."