TUMWATER — As Matt George was scoring the Class 2A Evergreen Conference Championships, there was a hunch it had the makings to be nip-and-tuck throughout the 5,000-meter race.
Between Tumwater and Aberdeen, there were little gaps that separated the two. Both had four standouts at the top, but the fifth runner determined the outcome on Wednesday afternoon.
The Bobcats’ Ezekiel Olson beat the Thunderbirds Thomas Kressin by 25 seconds and that was the final nail Aberdeen needed to upend Tumwater 36-43 at Pioneer Park.
“It is definitely a rebuilding year, but we’re really happy with how they’ve developed and still having a shot at a league title,” George, Tumwater’s head coach, said. “Just fell a little bit short.”
Only one senior in Joshua Morgan occupies the varsity roster for Tumwater and Zane McAferty is the other upperclassmen. The other five are sophomores or freshmen.
At the start of the year, Morgan was unsure about how well it would score as a team. Now, he’s more than confident.
“They’ve really stepped up,” Morgan said. “They have really impressed me.”
Donning a pink sleeve on one of his arms, Morgan was neck-and-neck with Aberdeen’s Henry Nelson and Cecil Gumaelius for 2.5 miles. Nelson, one of the fastest runners in 2A, turned on the jets and broke away from the pack.
Morgan’s last push was enough to create breathing room at the end versus Gumaelius by around five seconds.
“They were running a little goofy, I don't know what they were doing,” Morgan said. “It went fine. I just need to get stronger for next week. It was a harder pace.”
McAferty took fourth place in 17 minutes, 26.48 seconds while Landon Anderson (seventh) and Hayden Newman (eighth) snared all-league honors. Tumwater will now prepare for the 2A District 4 meet next week in Woodland.
The course – Lewis and River Golf Course – has been the T-Birds best friend as of late.
“Tumwater, we’ve always had our fastest times of the season down at (Woodland),” George said. “Whether that is because of the course or we target it, but it has always been a fast course for us.”
Outside of four all-league runners from Tumwater and Aberdeen, Centralia’s Ethan Weiher nabbed sixth place in 18:08.53.
The sophomore hit a new lifetime best of 17:48.90 earlier in October, a result that infused plenty of confidence. His time at league was 18:08.50, over a minute improvement from last fall’s EvCo race.
“Just training a lot more over the summer,” Weiher said. “Went to (a couple camps). Last year to this year, I have improved so much.”
Black Hills freshman Seth Thomasson secured 10th place and the last all-league spot, beating W.F. West’s Ezra Birchard by less than half-a-second.
