Building some momentum for the district meet, the Oak Harbor High School cross country teams both finished second in the Western Conference 3A divisional meet at Lakewood High School Saturday, Oct. 22.

The Wildcats hope to repeat last year’s success at district when both the boys and girls earned trips to the state meet. The task will be more difficult this fall because only two teams out of District 1, unlike three last year, will advance to state. The top 10 individuals also advance.

In addition to Wesco’s nine 3A school, district will include Northwest Conference 3A schools Ferndale, Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley.

The meet is set for Saturday, Oct. 29, at South Whidbey High School. The 3A girls start at 12:10 p.m. and the boys at 1:30.

Glacier Peak won both the boys and girls races at the Wesco championships.

The 11th-ranked Grizzly boys edged Oak Harbor 56-62 in the nine-team race.

As expected, the top-ranked and defending champion GP girls dominated the female field, defeating the second-place Wildcats 19-68 by placing seven runners in the top 10.

Oak Harbor was nearly as dominate over the remainder of the field. The ‘Cats had seven of the top 12 non-Grizzly runners.

In the varsity boys 5,000-meter race, Oak Harbor placed three in the top 10: senior Matt Reith (fourth, 16:49.21), senior Joshua Schrum (eighth, 16:59.2) and freshman John Rodeheffer (ninth, 17:04.04).

Coach Eric Peterson said, “All three are running well and hope to finish in the top 10 next week.”

The Oak Harbor girls were led by the 11-12-13 finish of senior Hannah Bressler (20:22.49), junior Christina Wicker (20:24.61) and senior Heather Dale (20:34.92).

Peterson said, “We’re looking forward to going head-to-head and laying it all on the table next weekend. Our kids had a hard week of training and should respond well to a little rest.”

Other results (JV races including 3A and 4A runners, 20 schools total):

JV boys (253 runners): 21, Isaac Matthews, 18:45.92; 55, Brendan Bristow, 19:31.59; 68, Joel Erickson, 19:44.27; 245, Alex Berry, 27:32.65.

JV girls (92): 8, Rachel Crowther, 22:15.52; 23, Emily Bain, 23:43.87; 28, Nikki Blanchard, 24:08.7; 64, Grace Pauley, 27:20.14; 79, Sophie Rath, 29:11.94.

Varsity boys (72): 15, John Kaltenbach, 17:35.15; 26, Stephen Miller, 18:07; 27, Dakota Powers, 18:08.98; 34, Esai Cunningham, 18:19.42; 37, Nathan Wagner, 18:25.21; 39, Patrick Mayer, 18:31.92; 40, Thomas Honeycutt, 18:35.87; 50, Wyatt Homola, 18:51.56; 66, Clayton Richardson, 20:02.94.

Varsity girls (85): 16, Alex Laiblin, 20:54.97; 18, Ashley Everett, 21:01.53; 20, Taylor VonGrey, 21:06.23; 21, Carlie Kenny, 21:11.91; 24, Jonalynn Horn, 21:20.16.