On Sept. 30, the East Jefferson Cross Country teams traveled to Klahowya Secondary School to compete in their second league meet of the season. Athletes competed over a 5k course that featured grass, asphalt, and trail.

The girls’ race consisted of 52 competitors, and the Rivals placed second as a team. The three seniors were instructed to run with the two freshmen on the team and support them throughout the race. Freshman Alli Applewhite finished 12th with a time of 24:04.1, with seniors Hilina Taylor-Lenz and Leah Ferland just behind her in 14th (24:07.3) and 15th (2:07.9) places, respectively. Freshman Charlotte Hines was paced by senior Michael Gregg to a 17th place finish (in 24:29.4) with Gregg coming in a fraction of a second later in 18th place (24:30.5). 

The boys’ race was also not an all-out race effort for the top EJ runners. The boys placed second as a team in their field of 95 athletes. The top five were given instructions to tempo the first couple of miles and then finish strong. Juniors Joshua Yearian and Nico Errichetti were the top two Rivals finishers in 2nd (17:20.9) and 6th (17:51.2) places. It was down to the wire for Errichetti and it was a toss-up whether he would place 6th or 7th until he actually crossed, a second ahead of a Cascade Christian competitor. Senior Dustin Hines ran an 18:00.3 effort for 8th place and junior Noah Isenberg took 10th with 18:24.0. The fifth runner for the team was sophomore Louis Sanborn who placed 42nd in 20:44.3. Junior John Neville (45th, 21:01.3) and sophomore Zeke Banks (50th, 21:28.4) rounded out the top seven.

On Oct. 4th, the team attended the Hoka 29th John Payne Invitational at Chambers Creek Regional Park in Tacoma. Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of another large invitational, the meet was bloated to 117 schools present.

The girls’ Varsity Silver race was the first of the day. The girls’ team placed 5th out of 19 teams. Ferland was the top EJ finisher in the field of 358 competitors, placing 45th with a time of 21:42.2. Gregg finished 55th with a time of 21:58.2. Taylor-Lenz finished 88th, with a time of 22:34.7. Applewhite finished 195th (24:20.6), Hines 197th (24:20.9) and junior Clara Camp 316th (27:20.0).

Most of the EJ boys competed in the Varsity Silver race in a field of 410 runners. Errichetti led the Rivals with a 29th place finish and a time of 17:05.5. Fellow junior Noah Isenberg crossed the line in 17:25.4 for 55th place (17:25.4), and Hines finished 67th (17:30.7). The team was rounded out by sophomores Banks (287th, 19:17.6) and Sanborn (316th, 20:36.2), junior John Neville (399th, 21:26.1) and sophomore Max Naumann (406th, 22:06.2).

Yearian was the only EJ athlete to race in the Varsity Gold race, where he placed 94th in the field of 183 competitors with a time of 16:59.3.

The final race of the day for the Rivals was the JV Silver Race. In another large a field of 399 athletes, junior Atom Barrett placed 315th (in 23:35.6) and sophomore teammate Oliver Johnson took 395th (with a time of 30:53.2).

The team travels to Lakewood High School on Oct. 11 for the Nike Hole in the Wall Invitational.

Alice Fraser is the head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach for the East Jefferson Rivals.