TUMWATER — Centralia High School’s Elyse O’Dell was not herself last fall. She battled through anemia, had low levels and was constantly fighting her health.
A state qualifier as a freshman, her sophomore season was a constant mental hurdle.
“I started getting some supplements and got into running form,” O’Dell said. “One of my friends helped me get back into shape; started eating better.”
Now healthy and returning to form, O’Dell has been the catalyst of a resurgent Tigers cross country program that reached the top of the Evergreen Conference Championships on Wednesday afternoon.
Three in the top-six and five in the top-20 was enough for Centralia to clip Black Hills 39-46 and triumph for the first league team XC title since 2011 at Pioneer Park.
“I knew coming in we had a strong team, they are really close-knit,” Tigers head coach Ryan Stockdale said. “We did it when it mattered most.”
Aberdeen nudged past W.F. West 65-76 for third place. Tumwater did not have enough runners to qualify for the team race, but did have the league runner-up in sophomore Alexandra Broome.
Most of the race she was a solo act, but finished in 20 minutes, 27.04 seconds for her third consecutive runner-up finish this season. The sophomore was sixth at league last fall.
“When I’m racing, I tell myself to stay uncomfortable and making sure I have an active mindset,” Broome said.
The offseason proved to be an eye-opener for O’Dell. In talking with doctors, even they were surprised she ran the entire year. Her track times were far from ideal, but the end-goal was to get healthy.
The junior won her season debut in a league meet back in mid-September, picked up two more league meet wins and was top-30 at a pair of weekend invites.
O’Dell was starting to feel stronger than ever. Her time of 21:52.93 on Wednesday marked the fifth time in the last six races she’s broken 22 minutes.
“My freshman year, I didn’t really prepare enough for it,” she said. “This year, I really wanted to get better times.”
The emergence of sophomores Eva Stout and Esther Hopkins has solidified the middle two spots in the scoring five. For much of the season, the duo operate as a two-girl pack.
They were shoulder-to-shoulder throughout the 5,000-meter race. They stayed that way until the finish when Stout edged Hopkins by over one second.
“They can feed off each other,” Stockdale said. “They can go get two, pick people off.”
Broome, a state qualifier as a freshman, has taken the approach of racing the clock, not her competition. Aberdeen’s Ailyn Haggard led wire-to-wire and never was threatened, but Broome left the race more than happy.
Now, her primary benchmark is to place high at next week’s Class 2A District 4 meet in Woodland and vie for a state medal.
“I was kind of on the edge of going to state last year,” Broome said. “That was my end goal. The goal this year is to get (into the) top-20.”
W.F. West’s Mercedes Ricks placed fourth thanks to a late kick down the homestretch to clock a time of 23:22.79 in just her fourth meet of the season. The senior’s schedule has been loaded outside of cross country with other commitments.
Still, her time was a new season-best.
“It feels really good,” Ricks said. “I like running with the other girls. It has been a good year.”
Black Hills’ trio of Averie Reynolds, Maddie Knight and Makenna Legault placed seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively to earn all-league honors.
