The distance runners at Prairie High School completed their regular season by besting Evergreen High School for the league title in both boys and girls cross country in the 3A Greater St. Helens League on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
The Prairie boys runners finished first through seventh place, giving them a team score of 15. A team needs to finish below a score of 27 to win a meet. Prairie senior Dekota Houfek ran away from the pack for first place on the 4,600-meter course at Lewisville Park with a time of 16 minutes, 21.73 seconds. Freshman Tavin Timperley came in second with a 16:34.
In Houfek’s senior running campaign, he hit a personal record at each distance. Houfek ran a 10:40.4 in the 2-mile Olympia XC Classic, a 16:13. in a 4,600-meters race at Lewisville Park prior to Oct. 15, a 15:44.7 in a 2.95-mile run against Kelso High School and a 16:28 for a 5,000-meter run in the 63rd Annual Steve Maas Run A Ree.
“I’ve never really taken much of a break except for like two weeks at a time after seasons,” Houfek said of training since beginning cross country his sophomore year. “I think that a lot of the training, especially for this season, came from summer training. Training in hotter weather has definitely improved my lung capacity, and just being able to power through weather like that makes it easier when it’s nice. I call rain nice weather.”
With his boys team securing the top seven spots to run away with the team score win and a league title, Houfek’s leadership has paid off.
“ feels great because a lot of these people, especially the underclassmen, I feel like I’ve taken under my wing, and I think that they look up to me, and I’m really proud of them for how far they’ve come,” Houfek said. “I just feel like that as a team leader, I’ve been a morale booster, and I think it’s been really fun watching them. Their personalities come out and also their athletic ability, and I’m really happy for them that they’re doing as good as they are and being able to work together on the team to come out and win this league title.”
For the girls, the race was closely competitive with the Falcons scoring 25 and edging out Evergreen’s 30 for the win. Prairie’s Zoe Jensen earned second place in the girls race on the 4,600-meter course at Lewisville Park with a time of 20:17.48.
