Centralia High School’s Elyse O’Dell turned in a new season-best time of 21 minutes, 27.90 seconds to cross the line in 33rd place in the silver division at Saturday’s 29th running of the HOKA John Payne Invite at Chambers Creek Regional Park.
Of the six area teams involved, O’Dell was the fastest individual in any race. She’s gone under 22 minutes in back-to-back races. Her efforts helped the Tigers place 14th overall in the team race, the fourth best Class 2A team in the field.
Liesl Stout was 36th in 21:31.90 and Eva Stout finished 56th in just over 22 minutes. W.F. West’s top finisher was Azami Bortoletto, 61st overall. Tenino’s Haley Huber (115th) and Rochester’s Kenzie Blankenship (202nd) also ran the silver division race.
On the boys side, the bronze division featured Winlock, W.F. West and Rochester placed inside the top-25 for the team race. The Warriors’ Kian Christiansen was tops amongst the contingent, 45th in 19:05.30. Winlock’s Oscar Silvestre (71st) and Jacob Trodahl (94th) were in the top-100. W.F. West’s Adam Butterfield ran 19:44 flat to place 78th.
In the silver race, Centralia’s Ethan Weiher ran sub-18 minutes for the first time this year and placed 110th overall. W.F. West’s tandem of Connor Clary and David Moeckel were separated by .30 seconds.
Hill nears sub-16 mark, Chase paces Toledo girls to top-three finish
The Riverhawks cross country program showed out at Saturday’s Harvest Classic with Conner Hill triumphing in the boys race and the girls low-five piling up 76 points to finish third overall. Morton-White Pass’ boys squad was fifth with 127 points.
For the second straight meet, Hill crossed the finish line in first place. His time of 16 minutes, 4 seconds flat broke his previous PR by two seconds. He’s got three victories on the season. Parker Hurtado and William Trumbo placed 64th and 100th, respectively, for Toledo.
The T-Wolves were paced by the duo of Vanson Armstrong (14th) and Noah Gilstrap (15th), separated by just four seconds. Aiden Kampa was 25th while Owen Loucks (45th) and Jevan Austin (48th) each ran sub-19:50.
On the girls side, four of Toledo's top-five runners ran lifetime bests. Oncia Chase led the way with a fourth place performance in 21:25.70 and Braelyn Nyberg was seventh in 21:33.90. Lilly Cooper (15th), Peyton Holter (27th) and Audrey Cooper (37th) rounded out the Riverhawks five. MWP’s two runners of Gemma Jakubowski and Aliya Bradley placed 38th and 77th, respectively.
Broome cards another top-10 placement
Through six meets this fall, Tumwater junior Alexandra Broome has already placed inside the top-10 four times, the latest a seventh place finish at Saturday’s Old School 5K at Wright Park. Broome’s time of 20:48.56 is 30 seconds off her season-best, but the third time she’s broken 21 minutes.
The T-Birds placed fifth on the boys side with 108 points. Their pack-running style paid off once again with all five finishing in the top-35 individually. Hayden Newman outkicked teammate Tyler Clark by over a second, both inside the top-20, while Zane McAferty (23rd) and Landon Martin (26th) were under 18 minutes. Martin and Will Zahn (33rd) each ran new lifetime bests.
