Last weekend, some of our cross country team members participated in the Washington State Championships meet. They had worked hard throughout their whole season and their hard work to improve themselves had finally paid off. However, the news of how the team did was actually not announced throughout the entire school. However, a chance to interview their coach, Kevin Wright, appeared and he gave me the news of how the team did during the meet.

The state meet was held at the Sun Willows golf course in Pasco, Washington. The course itself was 3.1 miles long or basically a 5k run. The team was anxious and excited for a chance to run in the state meet. Their coach, Kevin Wright, was very excited for another state meet. However, in order to have made it to the Championships, they had to pass a few requirements first.

“To qualify as a team our team had to place in the top 5 at the regional meet the week before state,” Wright said. “The state limits the team entries to 16 from the entire state – for our team, once we qualified, we are allowed to race 7 people (although I have to give the state 9 names and can run any 7 of the 9).”

Once they had qualified, they were set for Championships. Most of the people on the team have never been to a State Championships before. However, one of the team members, Naomi Reyes, has been to State before and was able to help the team members that haven’t been.

“She ran great,” Wright replied. “But more importantly, the last 2 weeks of the season she really provided great leadership to our team and helped to keep the girls calm and still excited about the championship season.  Since this was her 3rd trip there, the other girls on the team really looked to her for support and guidance and she really stepped up when needed.”

Besides Naomi Reyes, the other members of the team helped each other be prepared and improve one another for the Championships and throughout the whole of the Cross Country season.

“I would have to say the rest of the group really made me proud as well (Bella Torres, Kallie Kidder, Lilly Clarke, Shasta Hecht, Melissa Even, Lexi Solis, Grace Playstead, Aven Hart – who made up the state team, but it really extends to the whole team),” Wright said. “They were such great teammates to each other and really helped each other get better over the course of the season.  Cross Country can be a very individual sport but this whole team really worked hard to get better as individuals AND help their teammates get better as well.  It was one of the best seasons we have ever had in that regards.”

For placing in the State Championships, they placed 14th in the Championships. However, they could have possibly placed 12th, but a physical injury caused one of the team members to stop running. But they put up a good race and worked hard. Congratulations for our Cross Country team on their awesome performance at the Championships.