This year’s cross country season has given athletes countless opportunities to prove themselves. For example, being able to go to the Mook XC Invite at Alderbrook, which was located in Tillamook, Oregon.
A few weeks later, on the sunny Saturday of Oct. 12 the Hawks attended the fourth annual Mountain Loop Invitational. Terrace’s men’s JV Cross Country team came together to achieve an astonishing first place finish. The night before, they collectively ran to Edmonds Stadium, continuing a long running tradition of delivering the official game ball at the homecoming game.
At Mountain Loop, Terrace beat out a variety of schools, from Cascade High School in Everett, to the power-house Orcas Island, who finished in a close second place. The women’s varsity team also performed admirably, finishing fourth in Mountain Loop.
The JV team has been experiencing their fair share of ups and downs throughout this season, from a strong fifth place finish at the enormous meet in Oregon a few weeks ago, to a rougher finish of 17th at the annual Twilight Invitational. Of course, the varsity team performed admirably, finishing with a respectable seventh place.
The JV team was lucky to have a sunny, cloudless day, getting up to 70 degrees during the JV runners’ race. The Mountain Loop Invitational is a very challenging course. Just before the first mile marker there’s an enormously challenging hill, described by head coach Alex Walde as very hard, pushing the competitors to endure through the difficult 5,000 meter race.
“The hill and the blinding heat made the race hard and long, and it felt like it would never end,” Sophomore Ed McClanathan said.
Freshmen dominated for the Hawks, with Max Faast finishing fourth overall and first for Terrace with an incredible time of 21:03 a gigantic personal best for him by over a minute.
When asked about challenges in the race, Faast said, “The hill I had to run up twice, when you got to the top you were just done.”
Two other freshmen, Holden Menzie and Bennett Patterson, both boasted personal records and contributed to the scoring, finishing third and fourth respectivelyfor the JV team. Henry Teergarden represented the sophomore class, finishing with a personal best, as he came in 11th overall and second out of Terrace JV runners.
For the varsity runners, sophomore Jackson Castaneda and junior Jackson Fears both managed to finish top 15 in the varsity race while running an impressive sub-18 minute race.
The women’s varsity runners were incredible, with sophomore Sadie Renick leading the pack, finishing 12th overall while running an amazing 21:14 kilometers. Terrace’s teamwork was essential to winning the race at Mountain Loop, but Terrace also came prepared.
When Walde was asked about the team’s preparation, they said “A big part of it is a good amount of kids showing up for summer training.” Assistant coach Jonathan Schaeffer said, “I’ve seen great improvement in work ethic in practices,” about the Hawks practicing hard this year, indicating more great things to come.
Sophomore William McClanathan also said, “I really feel like the team has been working hard in our workouts.”
The team also had many parents supporting them in the audience, enthusiastic to cheer on runners and encourage the Hawks through to the finish line.
Cross country’s big district meet takes place on Nov. 2. The team has high hopes for sophomore Jackson Castaneda, junior Jackson Fears and of course sophomore Riley Brookhart, who ran an incredible 16:44 five kilometer race just a few weeks ago.
The freshmen this year are performing exceptionally well, alongside the sophomores and juniors who are dominating in varsity races. The team hopes that this victory will push the JV runners to compete to try for another first place finish.
On Oct. 17, Terrace attended the Edmonds School District Cross Country Championship at Ballinger Field. This meet was truly a success as the Terrace Hawks brought back another handful of wins. Not only did the team ring in seven individual wins among the individual athletes, the men’s team won third place.
Along with this, the women’s team made history, winning first place for the first time in 10 years! Terrace competes next at Lakewood High School on Nov. 2 as the varsity team competes for a chance to go to state.
This outstanding victory for Hawks JV cross country team is a good sign of Terrace’s ability to dominate this year and a great indicator of the freshmen’s opportunity to dominate in future years.
