It has been a dozen years since La Center High School won both boys and girls team titles in the 1A District IV cross country championship.
On Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Lewis River Golf Course in Woodland, the La Center Wildcats returned to that glory with both team titles and even the girls district champion in junior runner Sasha Pash.
“We had high goals this season to go undefeated in our league meets, to win the Trico League Title, and to win the district title,” La Center head coach Jill Cole said. “We accomplished all of these goals. This team is amazing, they are focused, hard workers. They are coachable and wanted to have a winning season. Everything we prepared for this season was executed in today's race.”
Pash earned the 1A girls district crown with a time of 19:40, three seconds ahead of the runner-up, freshman Kamille Vandevender from Montesano High School.
“We’ve been trying to push for the top the whole season,” Pash said of her team.
Pash added that Vandevender pushed her to run as hard as she could throughout the race.
“Kamille is amazing as a freshman,” Pash said.
The Wildcat girls stacked the front of the race with four more runners in the top 20. In the boys race, the Wildcats had three top 10 finishers and two more in the top 20 to earn first place as a team.
“We raced fiercely and pulled together as a team to accomplish our double district win,” Cole said. “We are looking forward to the State Championships next weekend to compete hard and see how high we can place.”
The Wildcats’ Evalyn Barnes placed seventh, and Alice Cottle placed ninth for three finishers in the top 10 in the girls race. The boys finished with all five runners in the top 16, with Lou Kissinger earning sixth, Sharp Young earning seventh, and Lance Cole finishing tenth.
In 2A, Hockinson boys runner Tanner Hood placed seventh as the boys team earned the third state berth. Hockinson girls runner Graysen Aldridge placed third to qualify for state.
Both the Ridgefield boys and girls teams earned second place to send their two squads to the state races. The girls were led by seventh-place finisher Abigail Peck, while the boys were led by Cooper Dollens with a fourth-place finish.
For Woodland, Kaylynn McSmith earned a 16th-place finish in the 2A girls race to qualify for the state championships.
The cross country state championships will take place on Saturday, Nov. 8, at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
