Competing at the 38th annual Mount Baker Invitational, the Oak Harbor High School girls cross country team placed second and the boys third at Silver Lake Park in Maple Falls.
The state’s sixth ranked 2A team, Burlington-Edison, won the girls varsity race with 38 points. Oak Harbor was next in the 10-team field with 63 points.
The Wildcat boys finished behind third-ranked Squalicum (62) and Burlington-Edison (117) with 136 points in the 14-team race.
Coach Eric Peterson said the Oak Harbor varsity boys results need “some perspective because two of our top five runners (Dakota Powers and John Rodeheffer) ran in the freshman race.” The Wildcats girls were also missing a varsity runner who was taking the SAT.
Rodeheffer posted Oak Harbor’s best individual finish by winning the freshman race, covering the 4,880-meter course in 16:36.85.
Matt Reith (fifth, varsity boys, 15:54.24), Christina Wicker (ninth, varsity girls, 19:14.29), Patrick Meyer (16th, JV boys, 18:21.6) and Rachel Crowther (11th, JV girls, 21:54.82) collected the best finish for Oak Harbor runners in the other races.
Peterson said Wicker ran well in spite of “battling sickness.”
He added a “number of girls” showed “improvement from last year’s times” as “the Wildcats had a great day of racing.”
The top 20 in each race received ribbons.
Oak Harbor, Meadowdale and Mariner go to Jackson Thursday, Oct. 6, at 3:45 for the next Wesco meet.
Other Oak Harbor results at Mount Baker:
Varsity boys (14 teams, 103 runners): 13, Joshua Schrum, 16:26.97; 31, John Kaltenbach, 17:09.8; 51, Esai Cunningham, 17:33.97; 52, Clayton Richardson, 17:35.21; 62, Stephen Miller, 17:55.98; 70, Thomas Honeycutt, 18:14.11.
Varsity girls (10 teams, 79 runners): 16, Heather Dale, 19:52.3; 17, Alexandra Laiblin, 19:59.79; 19, Ashley Everett, 20:09.61; 23, Jonalynn Horn, 20:21.97; 34, Carlie Kenny, 21:02.4; 41, Mackenzie Jackson, 21:32.65.
JV boys (15 teams, 160 runners; Squalicum first, 61 points; Oak Harbor fourth, 136): 23, Nathan Wagner, 18:36.68; 25, Adriel Eckart, 18:38.83; 38, Alexander Krantz, 18:55.65; 47, Wyatt Homola, 19:10.76; 48, Isaac Matthews, 19:17.61; 89, Ryuta Meany, 20:11.72; 95, Brendan Bristow, 20:19.19; 141, Francesco Bernardeli, 22:32.94.
JV girls (eight teams, 98 runners; Sehome first, 29; Oak Harbor seventh, 155): 41, Emily Bain, 24:18.97; 55, Stacy Meyer, 25:14.47; 76, Emily Saar, 27:06.78; 80, Sophie Rath, 27:24.97.
Freshman boys (seven teams, 70 runners; Sehome first, 71; Oak Harbor fourth, 87): 5, Dakota Powers, 17:54.71; 15, Joel Erickson, 18:48.08; 47, Gunner Melnick, 22:05.13; 69, Alex Berry, 30:15.93.
