• Gig Harbor senior Miles Unterreiner runs the fastest time of the day in 15:39 and nearly leads his team to victory before NW#4 Mead fifth runner, Jordan Baker, seals the deal to prevail 108-112 over the charging NW#10 Tide in the deep 4A race. NW Bubble Tahoma finished 3rd with 128 points, beating NW#9 Central Valley (4th with 140) in the process. Jackson and NW Bubble Lake Stevens scored 166 to tie for 5th, with Jackson's fifth runner putting them ahead. Redmond secured a 7th place finish with 178 points, and defeated NW#8 Eisenhower (187) and NW Bubble Snohomish (194) in the process.
• Mt. Rainier senior Ryan Prentice, fresh back from an injury that kept him out for 3 weeks, seems uneffected as he marches on to a 16:01 - 16:05 victory over North Central's Andrew Kimpel. Kimpel was the first team runner, and also lead his team to a 36-110 victory over Seattle Prep.
• 2A was the closest battle of the day, as Burlington-Edison beat Sehome on the sixth runner tie breaker as both teams amassed 63 points, and a mere 6 seconds separated the two sixth runners, as Burlington-Edison sophomore Conner Whan ran 17:25 for 22nd while Sehome freshman Scott Carlyle ran 16:32 for 25th in team scoring. Colville's Justin Rose (16:02) won the race.
• Humberto and Rigoberto Jimenez, twin seniors from Royal, dominated the 1A field until they jogged down the finish stretch and both crossed the line in 16:18, which is tied for the 14th fastest time on the day for all classifications.

• NW#9 Gig Harbor wins their third straight state title as they hold off NW#10 Eastlake 97-117. NW#5 Snohomish showed strong with a 142 point third place finish, and NW Bubble teams Redmond (163) and Central Valley (186) rounded out the top 5. Individually, Shadle Park soph Andrea Nelson ran a 18:26 to win by 16 seconds over the talented field that saw 4 others break 19 minutes.
• NW#8 Newport (66) reversed last week's loss to NW#7 Lakeside (75) to win the 3A championship, and NW Bubble Squalicum finished 3rd with 119 points. Individually, it was Squalicum senior Bronwyn Crossman defending her crown successfully to win in 18:46, which was 32 seconds clear of runner-up Chelsea Burns (Holy Names)
• Kingston sophomore Ruby Roberts ran the second fastest time of the day in 18:39 to defeat Sehome's Annie Moore. Moore's 2nd place finish propelled the NW Bubble Sehome Mariners to a 79-91 victory over district rival Bellingham.
• King's repeated as team champions after turning back LaCenter 70-89. King's was paced by individual winner Olivia Thomas (19:16).

Washington State Meet Preview
by Rob Monroe

4A Boys

After a razor-thin margin separated NW#10 Gig Harbor and NW Bubble Tahoma at the District 3 meet last week, both teams look to do very well in the scheme of things in the 4A Boys team race. NW#4 Mead and NW#8 Eisenhower were first and second in the Eastern regional, and an Eastern regional team has won the state championships for an incredible 20 years in a row, with a GSL team winning 19 of those years. The team with the majority of those wins (12) is likely the favorite, as Mead has been running great the last three weeks and has a reputation of running well when it counts most. Another pair of teams look to have a good chance are NW#9 Central Valley and Lake Stevens. Central Valley took third at the Eastern regionals behind Mead and Eisenhower, but were without their usual #2 Bryce Aguilar. As for Lake Stevens, they might have the best quartet in the state and if their fifth runner has a big day, they could challenge for the win. Snohomish has traded wins with Lake Stevens the last couple weeks, and is also a potential winner.

Individually, the race looks to be just as tight. Gig Harbor’s lead runner, Miles Unterreiner, has had an awesome season and is one of the favorites for the title. Tahoma’s lead runner, Jon Lafler, was only a second behind him at the District 3 meet and has also has a great season. Yet another District 3 runner, Puyallup’s Rob Webster, has had a great season and is another major threat to win. District 1 also brings in a few contenders, as Edmonds-Woodway’s Yon Yilma is undefeated this year but Oak Harbor’s Kyle King and Lake Stevens’ Joey Bywater were right behind him last week and have put together impressive seasons themselves.

4A Girls

NW#9 Gig Harbor has all the tools to win a third consecutive state championship, as Alyssa Andrews is looking like one of the best in the state and is accompanied by a pair of potential top-15 finishers. Not too far behind is an ever-deep NW#5 Snohomish team that just won the District 1 championship with a similar scoring spread to Gig Harbor’s District 3 championship performance. District 2 champions and runner-up NW#10 Eastlake and Redmond look like title threats as well, but with opposite strengths. Redmond has a pair of potential top-5 finishers in Devin McMahon and Sarah Lord, but it’s a minute back to their #3/4/5 runners. Eastlake won their title with pack running, and look to do the same at state with only one potential top-5 finisher in Chelsea Orr and a pack of four that all finished before any other teams’ third. Bellarmine Prep is similar Redmond, only with a slightly more spread out #3/4/5 but perhaps an even better front duo.

Shadle Park’s Andrea Nelson has run away from everyone in very impressive fashion, and is a likely favorite for the individual title after her 17:51 at the eastern regional last weekend and 17:37 a week earlier, which was 30 seconds faster than Redmond’s duo. Her top competition is likely to be the Bellarmine duo of Kayla Evans and Nicole Cochran, along with Gig Harbor leader Alyssa Andrews. Andrea Nelson might not break the course record, but just might be the third ever sub-18 effort at Sun Willows, joining the elite company of Brie Felnagle (17:53 in 2004, before her sixth place FLN finish) and Megan O’Reilly (17:35 in 2005, before her fourth place FLN finish).

3A

NW#2 North Central boys, led by an individual title threat in Andrew Kimpel, look to be a commanding favorite as they are one of the very best teams in the nation. A solid quartet of teams follow, including last year’s runner-up Seattle Prep, Camas, Bellevue and Mt. Spokane follow in North Central’s wake and have put together impressive seasons as well. On the girls side, it looks to be another Lakeside-Newport battle at the top, after Lakeside upset then-NW#5 Newport last week by 2 points at the District 2 championships. The two teams are now ranked NW#7 and NW#8, respectively. After that strong pair, it looks like a 3 way battle for third between Seattle Prep, West Valley (Yakima) and Hanford. That group could become a quartet if the District 3 champions Capital has a good day.

Individually, the boys race looks to be almost as good as the 4A race as North Central’s Andrew Kimpel collides with the District 3 & 4 elites of Julian-Blake Cowan (Auburn Riverside), Shane Geiger (Camas), and Ryan Prentice (Mt. Rainier). Prentice is just coming back from an injury, but did finish 2^nd to Cowan at the District meet. Close behind was Geiger and another pair of dark horses: Shelton’s Dan Paine and Lakes’ Seth Bridges. For the girls race, it looks to be defending champion Bronwyn Crossman of Squalicum battling West Valley’s Lisa Olander and Seattle Prep’s Lisa Sauvage.

2A

The Sehome boys looks like they’re almost unstoppable in their quest to repeat as 2A champions, as they almost swept their district race with 22 points. Their toughest competition is likely the second place team from District 1, Burlington-Edison, who were not 100% with their normal #2 dealing with pneumonia for the past month. Dark horses are the east’s trio of Cheney, Colville and West Valley (Spokane). Individually, the favorites are the top 2 from District 1 in Sehome’s Mason McHenry and Anacortes’ Danny Lindstrom, as well as District 3’s Abdi Giire (Foster) and Quinton Decker (Port Townsend), along with District 7’s Mitch Chandler from Riverside and Colville’s Justin Rose.

In the girls race, the top teams are Sehome and Bellingham, both from District 1. Sehome is led by individual co-favorite Annie Moore, and Bellingham by a top-5 contender in Becca Friday. Along with Moore the individual favorites for 2A girls are Kingston’s Ruby Roberts and the District 4 junior duo of Shannon Porter (Hockinson) and Torin Shriver (Centralia). Porter is the top returner from last year where she finished 2^nd, Moore is the 2^nd returner and Shriver was the 4^th but finished within 9 seconds last weekend at the District 4 championships. Roberts, as the new kid on the block, has been demolishing competition as she won her district race by an astounding 58 seconds against a solid field.

1A

The boys team battle looks to be between Royal, Lakeside and Onalaska unless Charles Wright comes up big. Royal is led by the duo of Rigoberto and Humberto Jimenez, who are favored to repeat their 1-2 finish of last year. In the girls team race, King’s looks like the favorite and LaCenter might be the next best squad. King’s won last year and returned everyone, including the top overall returner and individual favorite Olivia Thomas.

2B/B

Defeneding champions St. George’s is the strong favorites for the boys team title, and the girls favorites are St. George’s and NW Christian (Lacey). Individually, look for a rematch of last weeks District 5-7’s Matt Conrath of Odessa and Herschel Sanchey of Klickitat. On the girls side, it looks like last year’s 1-2 matchup of the two Northwest Christian schools top runners Lisa Vandenburg (NW Chrisitan Colbert) and Joscelyn Minton (NW Christian Lacey).