Nooksack’s Murphy wraps up career with strong finish at state

Nooksack Valley senior Amy Jo Murphy said she’s not exactly sure why, but she felt a bit tired on Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Class 1A Girls’ Cross Country State Championship in Pasco.

“I think I was a little stressed out the last couple of days,” Murphy said in a phone interview.

Whatever the reason, it was hard to tell, as Murphy turned in a strong performance in her final run on a cross country course for the Pioneers, placing fourth with a time of 18 minutes, 42.9 seconds. Zillah’s Alexis Redfield won the title in 18:06.6.

It was the second straight year that Murphy finished fourth at state, through she shaved nearly half a minute off her 2014 time of 19:15.1.

In fact, Murphy’s time this year would have been just a tenth of a second behind Redfield’s winning time in 2014.

Murphy said she worked well with Northwest’s Isa Meyers, who finished third, throughout the race.

“Knowing this was my last time, I just decided to go for it,” said Murphy, who will leave Nooksack with three top-10 finishes in four trips to state.

This was Murphy’s first time competing in Pasco as part of team, though, something she was quite excited about.

The Pioneers did her proud, finishing eighth with 195 points behind champion Northwest’s 69.

Lynden Christian was the top Whatcom County team, finishing just off the podium in fifth place with 160 points.

“I knew those four teams in front of us looked really solid, especially with a lot of front runners,” Lynden Christian coach Darren Postma said in a phone interview. “With our group being a good group of pack runners, I knew it was going to be an uphill battle to crack the top four. But our 1 through 5 ran really solid.”

Senior Sarah Ball led the way in 29th place in 20:40.6. Not far behind were seniors Brianna Bruneau in 36th (20:46.9) and Brandy Bruneau in 40th (20:48.1). Juniors Taylor Ten Pas in 52nd (21:00.2) and Brooke Berendsen in 61st (21:26.6) rounded out the scoring for the Lyncs.

Meridian was one spot behind LC in sixth place with 175 points.

Coach Mike Holz said junior Dena Andrushenko “ran an amazing race” to finish 19th in 20:17.8. Sophomore Ashlee VanDenTop wasn’t far behind in 23rd (20:28.2), and senior Mimi Meggison finished 25th (20:29.8).

“I’m proud of the girls’ team — really both teams,” Holz said in phone interview. “Mimi, I want to thank her for the last four years of hard work and being on the team and being a leader for our team. I appreciated all her efforts, and she’s a big part of the reason we did so well.”

Nooksack’s top finishers behind Murphy were sophomore Alyce Harlan in 31st (20:42.6) and senior Pearl Morris in 57th (21:09.6).

“It was nice to see three girls’ teams from the smaller schools outside Bellingham do so well today,” Holz said.

Mount Baker’s Natalie Smith finished 51st in 20:59.1.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Nooksack’s Murphy wraps up career with strong finish at state."