Bears boys, girls teams reach state

The Olympian • Published November 01, 2008

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LAKEWOOD – The Olympia boys and girls cross country teams each qualified for state with fourth-place finishes at Saturday's West Central District III championships, held at American Lake Golf Course.

The boys team racked up 140 points, led by Nate Brennand's 14th-place time of 16:29.02. For the girls, their fourth-place finish was the highest they've placed at district, Olympia girls coach Cris Violette said.

Olympia's Clare Kane, who won the Narrows League title last week, finished fourth (18:37.2) in the girls race to help the Bears to 151 points. And despite being significantly slowed by a stress fracture, teammate Annie Dear still managed to finish 10th (19:13.5).

"One of them is like a flat tire out there," Dear said of running on her injured leg. "It's kind of painful, but I wanted to run for my team so we could qualify."

Marissa Ang finished 41st overall at 20:29.4 and Katy Hoza at 20:33.5.

"Ang had a good race," Violette said. "She had a great week of workouts. I talked to her about going out harder, and boy, she did."

After winning the Class 3A district meet a year ago, the Capital girls team finished third behind Columbia River and North Kitsap with 115 points. Senior Emily Wallen finished fourth overall at 19:04 and stayed up with the leader of the pack for the majority of the race, Capital girls coach Kevin Wright said.

"She ran really, really well," Wright said of Wallen. "That was her best time ever."

Wright also noted the race of Kailyn Swarthout, who finished 28th overall and fourth among her Cougars teammates. Swarthout ran 20:10.03.

"She had a big PR," Wright said. "She's a team captain and she stepped up."

The Capital boys just barely made it to state, finishing seventh as a team and led by Dalton Morgan's sixth-place finish at 16:13.0.

The Cougars had some scare, too, before their celebration. The team's No. 3 runner, Nathan Huynh, collapsed at the 2-mile mark of the race.

"He just got dizzy and passed out," Capital boys coach Jerry Miller said. "I don't know why ... we won't know until the doctor sees him.

"We have nowhere to go but up for us today," Miller added.

Girls soccer

OLYMPIA 2, STADIUM 1

For the Olympia Bears girls soccer team, it was sweet revenge over the Stadium Tigers, avenging its early-season loss to the Tigers with their win on Saturday in the Narrows League tournament at Lincoln High School.

With the win, Olympia will play Bellarmine for the right to be the No. 1 seed out of the Narrows League into the district tournament at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Mount Tahoma. If the Bears lose, they'll take the No. 2 seed.

Kelsey Fuik scored in the first five minutes on the Bears' "banana set play," then added an insurance goal in the 60th minute from Marina Austin on a pass from Deidra Woodward.

"The girls left everything they had on that field," Olympia coach Tessa Effland said. "Everyone played with such heart."

When Olympia and Bellarmine met up earlier this season, it was the Lions who were victorious, 4-1.

Rachel Green had seven saves for the Bears, including some key one-on-one saves, Effland said.

"She had amazing saves," Effland said.