Cedarcrest High School’s cross country team competed at the Bellevue Invitational Saturday, Sept. 26, at Lake Sammamish State Park. The team has gone to this meet for many years, but saw a lot of new competitors this year, almost double, said Cedarcrest coach Bruce McDowell.

Illnesses and Cedarcrest’s Homecoming week combined to make what McDowell called “a challenging meet.”

The three fastest girls of the day for Cedarcrest were Alicia Krivanek, Madi Shinn and Kate Vergillo. The three fastest Cedarcrest boys of the day were Ian Fay, Ben Benson and Cameron Hammontree.  The boys squad finished seventh overall and more importantly first in the 2A classification.

Athletes of the Meet were Grant Van Valkenburg, who was on crutches running the Carnation 5K Run for the Pies three months ago, and Isaac Harper, Lars Candland, Kiana Ward and Kate Ebbers, each of whom had their best races of the season at the invitational.

“All things considered, we had ourselves a good day.  We are getting close to where we want to be,” McDowell said.

Cedarcrest’s next meet was Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Sunfair Invite in Yakima, one of the most important meets of the season for the team. The meet also meant a long day for all the athletes. The first race was at 9:30 a.m. and the last started at 4 p.m., McDowell noted.

Four of his runners had an even longer day, starting at 7:45 a.m., when they arrived at West Valley High School in Yakima to take the SAT test. They made their 1 p.m. race times, too.

“If you were ever unsure whether zombies could run, the answer is yes,” McDowell wrote. “Certainly not as fast as when they are normal humans, but yes they can run.”

Ongoing illness and inconsistency led to the team’s poorest showing of the season, he said. Both squads ended up two places short of their goal; the boys, hoping for third, placed fifth, and the girls were shooting for top-six placement, but got eighth. Each squad was only six points short.

Three varsity boys earned medals for top 15 performances in their respective flights, Van Valkenberg, Benson and Hammontree.

Seven boys and three girls claimed top-50 ribbons 50 of the non-varsity races.  Chase Bolin (one of the test takers) finished as Cedarcrest’s fifth boy.

Athletes of the meet were Van Valkenberg, Kaden Overman, Ben Norris, Cecelia Kiesow and Kendra Mutch.