Battle Ground High School’s varsity runners held their ground at the 4A district cross country meet on Wednesday, Oct. 22, with both top Tigers finishing second overall in their respective races against Union, Camas and Skyview. Junior Sophia Rogers clocked a 19:03 finish for the girls, while Lord King Nana-Badu-Weah came in at 15:44 for the boys. Both advance to regionals next week in Tacoma.
Rogers placed just behind Camas’s Kate Westfall (18:45), marking one of her strongest finishes of the year.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” Rogers said. “My plan was to stick with first place, Kate, but she ended up kicking me up the hill. But it was a good race, great competitor, so I couldn’t be happier.”
Rogers, who improved from 19:35 last season to 19:03 this week, credited her progress to consistency and long hours of training.
“I think it shows all the work,” she said. “Every single day in the summer, I was constantly putting in that work. Every day we come here, we run over and over again, so it really seems like my hard work paid off.”
Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Last week, Rogers earned The Columbian’s Athlete of the Week by 525 votes (42%), recognizing her standout season among one of the state’s toughest districts.
“I’m really happy,” Rogers said. “I’m really grateful. I feel like I’ve put in a lot of work over the season. Our district’s super good — Union, Camas, and Skyview — so I’m really happy I’m able to rank as one of the top girls.”
The girls’ team, unranked this season, still moves on to regionals after a strong group showing.
“I’m just happy with the team that I have,” girls' coach Patricia Tester said. “They’re a good group of girls.”
On the boys’ side, Nana-Badu-Weah led Battle Ground to a second-place team finish behind Cohen Butler Camas, which is ranked among the state’s top five.
“Going into this race, I knew it would be a really close battle between us and Camas because we’re both really good teams,” Nana-Badu-Weah said. “My goal was to stay with him and then I tried to stay with him when he passed me, but then I couldn’t and I fell off a bit.”
The junior said Lewisville’s course brought an extra challenge down the stretch.
“The first two miles, it’s really fast because it’s basically all flat,” he said. “Then you get to the last mile, which is where the hills are, and at that point it’s just like who wants it more, right?”
Head boys coach Kevin Donovan said he was proud of the team’s overall effort.
“I think we had a good race,” Donovan said. “It’s not all about wins and losses, and Camas is a really good team. The reason they’re ranked in the top five in the state, they got the best of us today, but we’ll see what happens again next week.”
The boys, currently ranked ninth in Washington’s 4A division, will look to push through at regionals to secure a spot at state.
“It’s an honor to the kids,” Donovan said. “They’re the ones that are doing it. Our athletes are working hard, and they deserve the ranking because they put a lot of work in over the summer.”
Nana-Badu-Weah, who posted a personal best of 15:03 earlier this fall, said he’s ready for the next test.
“It’s gonna be really fast and really hard,” he said. “I’m gonna try to stay with the top two guys and try to get third.”
Rogers said she’s taking the same mindset into regionals after helping the girls' team achieve a long-standing goal.
“It’s been a team goal since last year to get to regionals,” Rogers said. “I’m proud of them.”
