LANGLEY The Lakewood cross country team will be well represented at the 2A state competition as both the boys and girls qualified Saturday, Oct. 28 at the 2A, 3A, and 4A district championships.
The 5K (3.1-mile) race was held under foggy conditions for the Lady Cougars, but Mother Nature brought bright sunshine just as the boys began running around the campus of South Whidbey High School.
At the 2A level, the top four teams and 20 individual harriers qualify to compete at the Sun Willows Golf Course Saturday, Nov. 4 in Pasco.
Lakewood finished in fourth place for both teams as the boys had 91 points and their female counterparts tallied 126.
Senior Corrine Gogert (20:36) and junior Sarah Dunn (20:39) finished in 18th and 19th, respectively to lead the Lady Cougars.
Senior Danielle Osti came in 24th (21:09), freshman Chelsea Sowards 27th (21:18) and sophomore Lacey Nation 38th (21:57) to round out the scoring.
Sowards said it was an awesome feeling to qualify for state and said her time was 45 seconds faster than her previous experience on the same course.
Its probably due to more experience and strong training, she said with a large smile. My goal was just to get out fast. We really want a trip to state as a team.
Freshman Taylor Guske came in 12th overall in a time of 16:58 and senior James Ervin right behind him at 17:03 to pace the Cougars.
Junior Terrence Ordonez placed 19th in 17:18, sophomore Nick Devier 21st in 17:21 and junior Trevor Walker 26th in 17:35.
Ervin said he wanted to go sub-17 minutes, but his disappointment was overshadowed by the fact that the entire team qualified for state.