Young Cedarcrest runners do great at Apple Ridge Invite

Published 11:38 am Wednesday, September 24, 2014

On Saturday, Sept. 20, Cedarcrest’s cross country squad ran through the orchards of Cowiche, Wash., in the Apple Ridge Run.

It was the Red Wolves’ second trip to this Central Washington meet, which is made up of three 3-mile races, of changing difficulty.

In race one, the easiest course, Cedarcrest’s Vincent Dams made the podium, finishing 10, with John Shaw, Ben Benson and Jared Vanhulle not far behind. The top girl was Lily Kreuger at 15th, with a pack of other newcomers including Nicole Hagens, MaryCate Babock, Paige Lucas and Alicia Krivanek close behind.

The course in race two is used for postseason cross-country meets, with more hills. Cameron Hammontree finished fifth and Madi Shinn finished seventh. Ian Fay was 13th and Kiana Ward was 11th.

Race three includes a challenging 600-meter climb at the second mile. Isaac Harper took fourth, Courtney Tobin seventh and Ruby Farias eighth.

At the end of the day, the boys finished third overall and the girls were fourth—”a very respectable showing by both squads,” stated coach Bruce McDowell.

“Our veterans are starting to run better than last year,” said McDowell. “Our rookies are starting to gain some experience…. We are a pretty young squad this year with lots of rookies.  In fact, our scoring six for both genders are all non-seniors.”

He named four freshmen as Athletes of the Meet. Ben Benson, Grant Van Valkenburg, Emmett Klaiber and Alicia Krivanek all had big improvements in their times.

Cedarcrest competes at the Bellevue Invite at Lake Sammamish State Park on Saturday, Sept. 27.