Holden outruns Graham for title

HIGH SCHOOLS: Justin Holden beats Northwest Christian teammate Lucas Graham for boys title

GAIL WOOD; The Olympian | • Published October 31, 2009

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OLYMPIA - Justin Holden and Lucas Graham have developed a friendly rivalry, with the two Northwest Christian teammates taking turns at winning cross country races.

Holden made a late surge Saturday and pulled away from his teammate in a two-man race, winning the 1B district cross country meet by five seconds.

“I just went for it,” Holden said. “I was praying. ‘Lord, give me strength.’ ”

With Holden and Graham taking the top two spots, Northwest Christian won the boys team title, giving the Navigators a title sweep.

The Northwest Christian girls placed five in the top eight to win their fifth consecutive district title, finishing with 25 points. White Pass, one of three girls teams with a full squad, finished second with 41 points.

Running on a muddy course at The Evergreen State College, Holden, a junior, ran the 3.2 miles in 16 minutes, 46 seconds. Graham, a sophomore, finished in 16:51.

“The plan was to get out fast and make everyone else chase them,” Northwest Christian coach Bill Kehoe said. “They both ran strong.”

White Pass girls took the top two places and Northwest Christian took the next four, with sophomore Elizabeth Weber finishing third in 20:35, a minute behind White Pass’ Mikel Elliott.

“Elizabeth had a tough race. She fell late in the race,” Kehoe said. “But she got right back up.”

In the 2A meet, the Black Hills girls placed two in the top seven and finished third overall, finishing with 97 points. Washougal won with 80 points and R.A. Long was second with 84.

Black Hills’ Ellie Justice was fourth in 21:23, getting passed in the final 20 yards.

“Ellie ran strong,” Black Hills coach Tom St. Clair said. “She picked off runners as she went.”

Justice, Black Hill’s No. 1 runner all season, said she tried to match the pace of the two White Pass runners ahead of her.

“I was in third place and someone passed me at the end,” Justice said.

River Ridge junior Leah Bolon was seventh in 21:46, running her best race of the year.

Elma’s Todd Jackson maybe surprised even himself with how easily he won the 2A boys race. Jackson didn’t show any ill effects from an ankle sprain suffered in practice earlier in the week. Halfway through the race, Jackson pulled away from Chehalis’ Dakota Parker and won by 35 seconds, finishing in 16:04.

“I just wanted to go out hard,” Jackson said. “Something was wrong with my ankle and I was worried. But my ankle is all right.”

Black Hills’ Brett Lundmark came up with his best race of the year and finished eighth in 17:35 after finishing 14th at league.

“He finally broke it out and he finally had the race he was looking for,” St. Clair said. “He ran strong the whole race.”

In the boys 1A meet, Tenino’s Jarran Harris placed third and advances to state for the fourth consecutive year. Harris battled health issues that affected his kidneys midway through the season, yet the senior became one of the few Tenino runners to advance to state all four years.

“He’s one of the toughest kids I’ve coached,” Tenino coach Bryan Hoddle said.

Harris finished in 17:51, 20 seconds behind winner Frank Krause of Onalaska.

Tenino’s Chloe Hanson finished ninth in the girls race in 21:58 to advance to state after placing third at league.

The top four teams and the top 20 individuals will be in the state meet Saturday in Pasco.