Capital boys and girls teams finish in top 3, advance to district

PREP HIGHLIGHTS: Aviva Browning, Josh Echols lead Cougars

The Olympian | • Published October 25, 2009

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LAKEWOOD – The Capital boys and girls cross country squads were South Sound’s top teams at the 3A WCC/SPSL subdistrict meet at Fort Steilacoom Park on Saturday, and both teams advanced to next week’s West Central District III cross country meet.

The Capital boys finished second as a team, and the girls finished third. Peninsula won both team titles. The top six teams and top 30 individuals advance to next Saturday’s district meet.

After finishing first last year, the Cougars girls team finished with 78 points, behind Peninsula (66) and Enumclaw (78). Yelm finished sixth and earned the final team spot into the district meet.

“We didn’t run badly,” Capital coach Kevin Wright said. “We still have some girls trying to get better from being sick.”

Capital sophomore Aviva Browning ran the 5K course in 19 minutes, 47 seconds to earn fifth place. Two runners were able to out-kick her in the final 800 meters of the course, including North Thurston’s Cortney Thomas, who finished fourth (19:45.3).

Yelm’s Ashley Taylor (19:54) and Capital’s Carry Larsen (20:00.04) also finished in the top 10.

Josh Echols finished 13th in the boys race at 17:00 to lead Capital.Teammate Nathan Huynh was 17th in 17:06, and Alec Temple finished 19th in 17:11.

“They ran as a team,” Capital boys coach Jerry Miller said. “That’s our strength.”

Boys tennis

Chehalis dominates district: The Chehalis Bearcats’ top two singles players – Yasser Kahn and Hubie Paterson – battled it out once again for the 2A District IV singles title Saturday at Bally Total Fitness in Lacey. Just like in the singles final at last week’s Evergreen Conference meet, Kahn won in straight sets, this time 6-3, 7-6, for the district title and No. 1 seed to state.

The top four singles and doubles players advance to next spring’s state meet.

Tumwater’s Andre Celis won the consolation singles title to place third. Celis defeated Jonathan Haukaas from R.A. Long, 6-1, 6-3, and Jeff Koss of Mark Morris, 6-1, 6-1. Freshman Zach Drake finished in a tie for fifth, just missing out on state.

Chehalis won the team title with 21 points, followed by R.A. Long (16) and Tumwater (10). River Ridge, the only other South Sound team at the district tournament, finished sixth.

Olympia sends four to district: Olympia freshman John Stormans advanced to the singles title match on Day 2 of the Narrows League championships but lost, 6-3, 6-1, to Gig Harbor senior Max Jiganti. Stormans will be the No. 2 seed out of the Narrows in next spring’s West Central District III meet.

Stormans is one of four Olympia players who will play in the district meet. Hunter Wood placed third in singles, defeating Nick Noronha of Bellarmine Prep, 6-4, 6-3. Wood lost to Jiganti in the semifinals, 6-2, 7-5.

The Olympia doubles team of Reuben Talukdar and Alexei Calambokidis defeated Gig Harbor’s Jeremy Hurdus and Ryan Anderson for third, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

Girls swimming

Rams perform well: North Thurston coach Josh Stottlemyer was pleasantly surprised with the personal-best and school-record times his Rams had on Day 2 of the WCC/SPSL championships in Auburn. The Rams had school-record times in all three relays – 400 freestyle, 200 medley and 200 freestyle.

“I expected something like this at the district swim meet,” he said. “They did better than expected.”

North Thurston finished second, one point behind Peninsula.

Many swimmers had personal-best times, including Bre Schwarz in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM and Elizabeth Olson in the 100 butterfly.

No information was reported from Capital or Timberline swim teams.

The district meet will take place Nov. 6-7 at Hazen High School.