Week 2 Polls - 2A Boys and Girls

Girls

     1.      Sehome - won S. Whidbey by 37 points over 4A powers

     2.      Cheney - still no sign of their #2 & #3 & #5  returners who haven’t raced yet this season. Holland wins Mead Invite.

     3.      North Kitsap- won Salt Creek Invite

     4.      Burlington - beat Bellingham in tri-meet

     5.      Bellingham - Lost to Burlington in tri-meet

     6.      Capital -- 2nd place at Ft. Steilacoom

     7.      Cedarcrest- won mid-week meet

     8.      Lakewood -

     9.      Kingston - 4th at Salt Creek Invite

     10.  Deer Park - 4th at Moses Lake Invite

Others: Ephrata, Hockinson, Tumwater, Mark Morris, Sumner

Boys

     1.      Squalicum-beat Sehome by 3 pts at South Whidbey, 4^th place overall

     2.      Sehome-5^th at South Whidbey where top 5 teams were separated by 11 pts.

     3.      Bellingham

     4.      Deer Park-2nd at Moses Lake Invite, quite a ways behind University

     5.      Cedarcrest-won mid-week meet

     6.      West Valley-Yakima  -no posted competition this week

     7.      Selah-no meet

     8.      Cheney- ran at Mead Invite

     9.      Lindbergh – 13^th at Fort Steilacoom Invite

     10.  Tumwater

Others: Lakewood, WF West, Mark Morris, Capital

NWC Weekend Round-up: Girls

South Whidbey

Sehome, Squalicum, Mt. Baker, Nooksack, Anacortes, and Mt. Baker all competed at the South Whidbey Invitational.  Sehome ran their team in the top end Division 1 race, while the rest ran in the Division 2 race.  Brittany Gappa ran on her own in the Division 1 race while her team ran in the Division 2.

Division 1

Sehome easily outdistance a field stacked with 4A powers Jackson, Eastlake, and Eisenhower.  

Top 5

Sehome 45

Jackson 82

Eastlake 86

Eisenhower 86

West Point Grey 118

Sehome place 5 runners in the top 19 and 8 in the top 30.  Emily Pittis finished 3^rd overall, followed by a strong race from frosh Rebekah Oviatt who finished 7^th.  Sarah Huffman was 12^th, Abby Cybula 18^th, Dana Ringler 19^th, Zanna Sullivan 23^rd, Lindsay Hodgson 29^th and Jessa Clark 30^th.  Sehome had 5 in before anyone else had 3, and 6 in before anyone else’s 4^th.  Brittany Gappa waged a strong battle with Sally Larson of Cedar Park Christian for the individual battle.  Larson pulled away down the stretch for the victory, with Gappa finishing 2^nd.

Division 2

Mt. Baker had the top local team finish, placing 4^th, Squalicum was 6^th, and Nooksack Valley was 8^th.  Lynden was incomplete.  South Whidbey won the team title.  Rachael Hatcher had a strong race, finishing 3^rd in 20:42, her teammate Kelsie Nern was 8^th.   Lynden Freshman Grace Sauter had a fine invitational debut, finishing 11^th.  Claire Scott led Squalicum, finishing 13^th, and Alex Parson led Nooksack, finishing 16^th.

JV – Anacortes ran their girls in the JV race, led by Minta Demonte who finished 25^th.  Of note is that Sehome swept the top 7 spots in the JV Race, led by raced winner Natalie Anderson in 21:07.

Salt Creek Invite

Lynden Christian competed at the Salt Creek Invitational, finishing in 7^th place.  North Kitsap won the team title.  LC was led by Marissa Hielkema who finished 11^th.

NWC Weekend Round-up: Boys

South Whidbey

In what looks like a battle that will go on all year, Squalicum won round two slipping past Sehome by 3 points as the teams finished 4^th and 5^th in a top heavy Division 1 race.  The top 5 teams were separated by only 11 points, with Jackson winning the meet on a tiebreaker over Kamiak.

Jackson                        68

Kamiak                        68

Eisenhower                 72

Squalicum                   76

Sehome                       79

Eastlake                       129

Anacortes                    197

Meadowdale               251

Eastside Catholic        251

NWC Notes – after a slow first mile, Patrick Gibson took control, stretching things out to a 17 second victory.  Dillon Quintanna, running 3^rd for most of the second half of the race, ended up 4^th.  Conner Johnsen finished strong to move up to 5^th, Reed Henderson had another strong effort in 7^th, Chris Fredlund followed up his sophomore race victory at the Sehome Invite with a 10^th place finish, and Liam Toney finished 13^th – giving Sehome the strongest top 3 combo in the race.

Division 2 Race – this race was for smaller, more developing teams.  Schools in this category with an elite runner were allowed to run the elite runner in the Division 1 race and the rest of their varsity team in this race – which is what Mt. Baker did, running Quintanna in Division 1, and the rest of the team here.

The top NWC finisher in the Division 2 race was Shelby Miles of Mt. Baker in 6^th, followed closely by Stephen Diet of Nooksack in 7^th.  Nooksack was the top NWC finisher in the team results, finishing 4^th, Lynden led by Robby Swineford 12^th place individual finish was 9^th, and Mt. Baker finished 11^th – had they run Quintanna in this race it appears Baker would have finished 4^th.

Salt Creek Invite –

Lynden Christian traveled to the Salt Creek Invitational in Port Angeles, where they finished 5^th as a team and were the top 1A team.  The meet was won by Nathan Hale.

Top 5 teams:

Nathan Hale                33

Interlake                      94

Bainbridge                  97

Bellevue                      98

Lynden Christian        152

LC was led by Cody Velthuizen in 16^th place in 15:50.95. 

For those trying to compare times across invites or previous races, Salt Creek is listed as a 3.0 mile course, but it is well know that the course is a bit shorter and times are historically very fast. 

Boys Merge from Sehome Invite

Better late than never...the Merge from the Sehome Invite shows that it is going to likely be a tight battle all year long between the three schools from Bellingham.  Sehome edged out Squalicum and Bellingham this time around.  As previously discussed, merges aren't a super accurate picture of what would have happened if everyone raced together, but they do give an idea of where teams stand.  Runner's potentially most adversely affected by being in separate races are Chris Fredlund from Squalicum and Kirby Overman from Sehome, as they won their races it is is realistic to think that if they had been in the Senior race they both would have been pulled through to faster times and broken the top ten overall (all schools) on the day.

Sehome                       58

Squalicum                   63

Bellingham                  77

Lynden Christian        126

Meridian                      138

Burlington                   181

Blaine                          194

Ferndale                      196

Mt. Baker                    205

Nooksack Valley         247

2A Polls - Week of September 10th

Boys
1. Sehome – Won Sehome Invite in invitational and merged scoring over both Squalicum and Bellingham
2. Squalicum - behind Sehome and ahead of Bellingham at Sehome Invite
3. Bellingham
4. Deer Park
5. Cedarcrest
6. Selah
7. Lindbergh
8. Mark Morris
9. Lakewood
10. WF West 
Others - Capital, Colville, Ephrata, Tumwater

Girls
1. Sehome – 2^nd at Sehome Invitational – 4 pts behind Glacier Peak in Invitational scoring and 3 pts back in merged scoring.
2. Cheney – ran without #2 and #3 returners at Highlander
3. Bellingham - beat Burlington in invite scoring and merged scoring at Sehome Invite, 3rd overall.
4. Burlington -
5. North Kitsap
6. Mark Morris
7. Cedarcrest
8. Lakewood
9. Kingston
10. Deer Park
Others - Ephrata, Sumner

NWC Girls Merge from Sehome Invite

10 of the 13 schools from the NWC Conference participated in the Sehome Invitational on Saturday, with the only missing schools being Anacortes, Lynden, and Sedro Woolley.  Below is the merged scores for the Conference schools only - schools from outside the conference removed.  Of note - Sehome (running without #2 returner Kate Hannah) placed 5 in the top 9 and 13 in the top 32.  Bellingham edged Burlington, ranked 4th and 3rd respectively in the coaches' poll, by 6 points.  Boys NWC Merge to follow soon...

Sehome                       28

Bellingham                  74

Burlington                   80

Meridian                      133

Lynden Christian        141

Squalicum                   154

Ferndale                      164

Nooksack                    200

Mt. Baker                    Inc.

Blaine                          Inc.

1          Brittany Gappa           11:48.7            SQAL             12

2          Emily Pittis                 12:10.7            SEHO             10

3          RaynJoy Norton          12:36.1            BURL             11

4          Bekah Jensen              12:41.2            BHAM            12

5          Sarah Huffman           12:41.6            SEHO             11

6          Rebekah Oviatt           12:51.6            SEHO             9

7          Rachael Hatcher          12:52.2            MTBK             12

8          Zanna Sullivan            12:56.5            SEHO             9

9          Abby Cybula               12:56.7            SEHO             11

9          Olivia Capron              12:56.7            BURL             10

11        Mimi Meggison           12:57.7            MERD                        9

12        Makalee Latta             13:04.1            FERN              12

13        Marissa Hielkema        13:09.4            LNDC             11

14        Dana Ringler               13:10.7            SEHO             9

15        McKenzie Roque        13:12.3            MERD                        11

16        Lindsay Hodgson       13:13.5            SEHO             12

17        Nicole Burbank           13:15.7            BHAM            11

18        Maya Norton               13:16.1            BHAM            11

19        Regan Bervar              13:17.5            SEHO             11

20        Leah Veldhuisen         13:17.9            BHAM            10

21        Abby Walker               13:19.0            BHAM            10

22        Jessa Clark                  13:19.4            SEHO             10

23        Katie Walker               13:20.8            BHAM            12

24        Sydney Brown              13:21.5            BURL             12

25        Jayna Edmonds           13:30.2            MERD                        12

26        Meghan Templeton     13:31.3            BURL             11

27        Hayley Walker            13:33.4            BHAM            12

28        Madison Sullivan        13:36.8            SEHO             12

29        Christina Sosa             13:38.4            BURL             11

30        Devin Grahn               13:38.5            SEHO             9

31        Natalie Anderson        13:40.0            SEHO             12

32        Maya Iddins                13:47.1            SEHO             9

33        Katie Studebaker        13:47.2            BURL             11

34        Jillian Anderson          13:48.4            FERN              9

35        Ciera Gordon              13:52.2            BURL             11

Sehome Boys win Sehome Invite

The Sehome Boys won the Sehome Invitational on Saturday.  They won in both the Invite Scoring which utilizes the McDowell Scoring System and via the Merged Score - see descriptions of methods in post below.

The meet was dominated by the Senior Boys Race which had the top 12 times on the day.  Squalicum Senior Patrick Gibson won the Senior Boys Race and broke the Scott Caryle's course record by seven seconds, running 9:55 - see notes in previous post about the slow conditions of the course, making Gibson's effort that much more impressive.  Sehome's top 4 of Reed Henderson, Conner Johnsen, Liam Toney, and Kirby Overman helped power them to the victory.

Invite Scoring via the McDowell Scoring System
1st - Sehome 48
2nd - Kamiak 62
3rd - Squalicum 65

Sehome also comfortably won the combined boys and girls trophy for the meet with 74 points, outdistancing second place Bellingham by 52 points.

Merged Scoring:

1          Sehome                       92

2          Squalicum                   113

3          Kamiak                        123

4          Bellingham                  131

5          Newport                      158

6          Lynden Christian        256

7          Glacier Peak                280

8          Meridian                      308

9          Aberdeen                    333

10        Kingston                     353

11        Oak Harbor                 371

12        Shorewood                  393

13        Lakewood                   413

14        Burlington-Edison      462

15        Arlington                     467

16        Ferndale                      474

17        Meadowdale               480

18        Cascade-Everett          486

19        Cedar Park Christian   490

20        Mount Vernon                        492

21        Everett                                    518

22        Blaine                          540

23        Archbishop Murphy    551

24        Mt. Baker                    558

25        Marysville-Getchell     615

26        Marysville-Pilchuck    657

27        Port Townsend            684

28        South Whidbey           694

29        Nooksack Valley         715

30        Sultan                          909

Glacier Peak Girls Edge Sehome at Sehome Invite

The Glacier Peak Girls just squeaked by Sehome at the Sehome Invitational Saturday.  They narrowly beat them in the Invitational Scoring and in the merged results.  The Invitational Scoring utilizes the McDowell Scoring System - using three displacers per race and taking each schools top finisher from each class race and their next two best finishes overall.  Merged scoring can always be a little suspect as runners are running against different competition. In this meet, this seemed to be more of a detriment to Sehome than Glacier Peak, as Sehome Sophomore Emily Pittis ran away with the Sophomore race with no competition and ran the 6th best time of the day behind the 5 top girls from the Senior race.  One has to believe she would have been a couple places higher overall if she had been able to compete against those girls.  Also of note - top runners missing from each school: Sehome's was missing their projected #2 runner Kate Hannah due to ACT Testing and Glacier Peak was missing their # 3 runner Marlee Rothschild due to a slightly sprained ankle during the week - both very similar runners as they ran nearly identical times at the State Meet last year.

Of note, the course ran very slow this year.  The course is normally slow as it is as it is very technical.  The heat this year, combined with fresh gravel across a parking lot and a lot of fresh dirt laid down on trails resulted in a really slow course.

Invite Scoring Top 3 Teams via McDowell Scoring System
1. Glacier Peak - 21
2. Sehome - 26
3.  Bellingham - 58

Merged Scoring - Including only top 7 runners and throwing out any runners not on teams with at least 5 runners total:

1          Glacier Peak:               61

2          Sehome:                      64

3          Bellingham:                 138

4          Burlington:                  153

5          Newport                      192

6          Arlington:                    242

7          Cedar Park Christian   257

8          Lakewood                   282

9          Kingston                     284

10        Marysville-Getchell     311

11        Kamiak                        313

12        Meridian                      332

13        Lynden Christian        337

14        Oak Harbor                 386

15        Squalicum                   401

16        Ferndale                      419

17        Meadowdale               439

18        Shorewood                  455

19        Cascade-Everett:         466

20        Mount Vernon             522

21        Nooksack                    537

22        Everett                          546

Sehome, Meridian, Sedro Wooley Recap

This location of this meet was reschedule to Sehome High School for numerous reasons.  A 3 loop, two mile course was used.

Boys - Sehome dominated from the start with Reed Henderson leading Sehome Pack of three early, which also included Conner Johnsen and Kirby Overman.  They ran together throughout the race and continuously stretched their lead.  Johnsen kicked at the end for the victory.  Liam Toney from Sehome ran alone in 4th the entire race and Josh Schacht from Sehome outkicked Kelby Todd of Meridian to secure the 15 point total for Sehome. Top Frosh was Sehome's Colton Johnsen in 18th.  Sehome placed 8 runners under 11 minutes and 22 under 12 minutes.


Girls - Meridian Freshmen Mimi Meggison led through the first loop with Sehome's Emily Pittis on her shoulder. Pittis soon took the lead on lap 2 and stretched it out significantly on the final loop.  Sehome freshman Rebekah Oviatt closed hard for 3rd, followed by four more teammates (Kate Hannah, Sarah Huffman, and Freshmen Dana Ringler and Zanna Sullivan.  Sehome placed 10 girls under 13 minutes and 23 under 14 minutes. Sehome placed 7 frosh in the top 19 in what appeared to be a conservative race with the Sehome Invite on the horizon.

Sehome Invitational Preview

The Sehome Invitational is this Saturday at Civic Stadium in Bellingham.  33 teams are registered, including most of the Northwest Conference.  Two big additions this year are the Glacier Peak Girls and Aberdeen, featuring Poli Baltazar - last year's 2nd place individual finisher in 2A.  Should be a great Invite.

Hopefully more to come, but below is a quick preview of Runner's to Watch in each race - the meet is run by class races.  It is an ACT Testing weekend so there will be some key absences.  Known absences for ACT's or other various reasons are listed.

The meet is scored by taking your top finisher in each race and your next two best finisher from any race.  Each team may have up to 3 runners count as displacers in each race.

Schedule

10:00am          Junior Varsity Boys Race

10:25am          Freshmen Girls Race

10:50am          Freshmen Boys Race

11:15am          Sophomore Girls Race

11:40am          Sophomore Boys Race

12:05pm         Junior Girls Race

12:30pm         Junior Boys Race

12:55pm         Senior Girls Race

1:20pm           Senior Boys Race

1:55pm           Community Open Race - $10 Entry Fee

Freshmen Boys To Watch: Colton Johnsen, Sehome; Riley Allsop, Sehome; Sam Gillman, Bellingham; Aaron Martinez, Aberdeen; Andrew Muljat, Sehome

Freshmen Girls to Watch: Mimi Meggison, Meridian; Rebekah Oviatt, Sehome; Zanna Sullivan, Sehome; Lizzy Friesen, Sehome; Dana Ringler, Sehome; Devin Grahn, Sehome;

Sophomore Boys to Watch: John Rodeheffer, Oak Harbor; Kirby Overman, Sehome; Douglas Davis, Lakewood; Isaac Wadhwani, Terry Fox; Jon Wiley, Lynden Christian; Langston Engle, Sehome; Zane Markosian, Sehome; Dakota Powers, Oak Harbor; Collin Magnusson, Meridian

Sophomore Girls to Watch: Emily Pittis, Sehome; Katherine Dittmann, Glacier Peak; Tiana Roe, Kamiak; Tera Beyerlein, Kamiak; Leah Veldhuisen, Bellingham; Olivia Capron, Burlington-Edison; Abby Walker, Bellingham; Stephanie Schlimmer, Sedro Woolley;

Junior Boys to Watch: Chris Fredlund, Squalicum; Nick Gallaher, Squalicum; Brian Chmelik, Bellingham; Alex Mitchell, Mount Vernon; Nathan Wadhwani, Terry Fox; Jared Alskog, Arlington; Jerry Behrens, Kamiak; Keenan Stephens, Shorewood; Simon McQuire, Bellingham

Junior Girls to Watch: Marissa Hielkema, Lynden Christian; Megan Davis, Glacier Peak; Sarah Huffman, Sehome; RaynJoy Norton, Burlington-Edison; Annie Roberts, Kingston; Abby Cybula, Sehome; Nicole Burbank, Bellingham; Regan Bervar, Sehome; Ciera Gordon, Burlington-Edison; Meghan Templeton, Burlington-Edison

Senior Boys to Watch: Patrick Gibson, Squalicum; Poli Baltazar, Aberdeen; Conner Johnsen, Sehome; Tom Bradley, Sehome; Reed Henderson, Sehome; Dillon Quintana, Mt. Baker; Joe Charbonneau, Bellingham; Connor Jungkuntz, Ferndale; Logan Jungkuntz, Ferndale; Dylan Dubuque, Squalicum; Paris Speidel, Bellingham; Ryan Bradford, Kamiak; Liam Toney, Sehome

Senior Girls to Watch: Amy-Eloise Neale, Glacier Peak; Katie Bianchini, Glacier Peak; Brittany Gappa, Squalicum; Sally Larson, Cedar Park Christian; Marlee Rothschild, Glacier Peak; Rachel Hatcher, Mt. Baker; Bekah Jensen, Bellingham; Jessica Spray, Newport; Rachael Lefstad, Marysville-Getchell; Haley Suarez, Meadowdale;  Lillianna Stelling, South Whidbey.  A couple key girls missing from this race will be Kate Hannah from Sehome and Sydney Gray from Meridian.