Olympia’s Coleman runs away from Kehoe field as Bears’ team finishes second
Cross country is a sport filled with moving targets and, literally, ever-shifting ground under a competitor’s feet.
Every football field is exactly 100 yards from goal line to goal line with most high schools now playing on near-identical artificial turf. Even cross country’s cousin, track and field, is almost always contested on cookie cutter red rubber tracks.
But when Olympia senior Ethan Coleman toured the course in the Bill Kehoe South Sound Invite at Saint Martin’s University on Saturday in a meet record 14:52.7, leaving the other 122 runners in the boys elite division in the dust by a minimum of a minute and 10 seconds, he was running on a different surface than Tyrone Gorze of Crater High School in southern Oregon ran his national leading mark of 14:29.3 on.
“The thing about cross country courses is they’re subjective,” Coleman said. “There’s more than just the time alone. The most important thing is who you beat and how much you beat them by.”
Coleman entered the week second in the nation via his 14:40.2 mark at the Nike Twilight meet in Arlington last week, just behind future Notre Dame team mate Sam Rich of South Carolina. But since then, Gorze scorched his home course in Central Point and two Newbury Park, Calif. runners, Colin Sahlman and Leo Young pushed Rich and Coleman down to fifth and sixth.
“I came in with the right mindset,” Coleman said after running a mark 12 seconds off his season’s best. “But in our workout cycle, this wasn’t the most important meet on our list. Even so, I’m proud of my time.”
Nonetheless, sub-15-minutes is an accomplishment under any circumstances, and Coleman’s start to finish dominance of the Kehoe field wasn’t something those on hand will forget soon.
Coleman’s individual gold helped pace Olympia to second place in the team competition, behind 4A South Puget Sound League rival Puyallup, 92-98.
“Our kids did a great job,” said Bears’ coach Jesse Stevick, who himself finished third in the open 5k race that opened the festivities. “George Merrifield and Asher Coppin, our two-three guys, have been awesome. They worked really hard over the summer. Riley Smith and Owen Windrope have been improving and stepping up over the course of the season.”
Three other Thurston County teams, Tumwater, Yelm and North Thurston finished sixth, seventh and eighth.
John Hoffer’s third place finish in 16:07.1 led the Thunderbirds, while Yelm’s Ryan Lange finished eighth in 16:24.3 and Isaac Akiyama of the Rams grabbed the final spot in the top 10 at 16:30.0. Hoffer’s mark was a season best for him by 18 seconds.
In the girls elite race, Capital senior Aubrey Harrington was the top local finisher, crossing the finish line sixth in 19:00.5.
“It’s so nice to be back racing big invites like this. It’s amazing to be back and racing against so many different girls,” Harrington said.
Harrington finished well behind winner Alexis Leone of Seton Catholic, who scored a convincing victory in 18:10.1, but she found an individual to compete with in Union’s Charlotte Wilson. The two traded sixth and seventh place as the race unfolded with Harrington ultimately coming in less than a second ahead of Wilson.
“I was battling with her, we kept going back and forth,” Harrington, who won one 5K race earlier this season by nearly a minute and a half, said. “I haven’t competed in so long, I’ve normally been running by myself in races, so to have that mental competition was hard.
“When we got to the last 400, I need I had to go, even though it hurt a lot.”
Harrington took note of the strong contingent of 3A South Sound Conference runners near the front of the pack – five of the top 10.
“Our league is so, so competitive. We have some amazing schools, but one of my biggest goals is to get our team to state,” she said.
No other Thurston County runner finished in the top 30 of the girls elite race. Capital was 11th as a team with Tumwater 12th and Olympia 13th.
In other races at the massive 57 high school, 21 middle school meet, Northwest Christian’s Asher Ingram won the boys silver event in 16:37.6, while Madison Ingram of the Wolverines was second in the girls silver. Pope John Paul II won both the boys and girls silver team events.
In races for freshmen only, Capital’s Salem Henriquez won the girls and Miles Yost of Olympia and Aaron Blume of Timberline finished second and third among the boys.
In boys middle school action, Jude Furubotten of Bush in Tumwater won by less than two seconds in a 1.5 mile dual with Tenino’s Carter Mounts, in 8:55.7. In the girls middle school race, Haley Schwepp, running unattached, breezed in 9:17.9.
PUYALLUP BOYS, CENTRAL KITSAP GIRLS WIN TEAM TROPHIES
The Puyallup boys came out on top in the team scores with 92 points, edging Olympia’s 98. Cian Monaghan ran a 16:03.10, while Nate Herrick also finished in the top-10, coming in seventh at 16:23.60.
In the larger South Sound picture, Steilacoom sophomore Caleb Wilcox finished 11th overall at 16:30.40; Central Kitsap senior Dawson Fourier finished 15th at 16:46.20 and Silas’ Steiner Christensen clocked in at 16:46.30, taking 15th.
On the girls side, Central Kitsap won comfortably with 68 points, beating Seton Catholic (83). For the Cougars, senior Taylor Nichols (ninth, 19:18.00), sophomore Camryn Bishoff (10th, 19:27.10), senior Aaliyah Chandler (15th, 19:50.10) and sophomore Eva Huff (17th, 19:52.50) all finished in the top-20.
The top individual local girls finisher was Peninsula junior Hannah Lee, who came in second place with a time of 18 minutes, 17.30 seconds. Her teammate, freshman Elektra Higgings, took fifth at 18:52.10. Auburn Riverside freshman Julia Couch took fourth, clocking in at 18.49.70.
TNT preps reporter Jon Manley contributed to this story.