Falcon girls win home cross country meet

South Whidbey’s cross country teams placed high in their only home meet of the regular season, the South Whidbey Invitational.

The Falcon girls claimed first place in the Division 2 race with seven other small schools. South Whidbey’s boys boasted a second-place team finish out of 14 schools and the first-place runner, sophomore Cole Zink, in Division 2.

Seniors led the way for South Whidbey. Lillianna Stelling finished second in the small school division with a time of 20:11.24 in the Falcons’ first 5-kilometer race of the year. She was followed closely by fellow senior Bonnie Klamm, who finished seventh in 21:04.44. Nora Felt was the 12th-place finisher in 21:36.98, and Anna Hood ran the 5,000-meter course in 23:27.31, both posed their fastest times since last October.

Freshman Mallorie Mitchem was the 10th-place runner and finished in 21:29.88. Sophomore Emma Lungren ended her run in 22:48.6, 33 seconds slower than her final race last year. All the Falcon girls finished in the top 25 out of a field of 53 runners.

The Falcon girls won the team title with a total time of 1:47:11.14.

South Whidbey’s boys were led by underclassmen. Zink gave the Falcons a big boost with his time of 17:17.5, his personal best 5-kilometer time by 17 seconds. Junior runner Gavin Imes finished in 18:56.99. The lone Falcon senior boy, Jhamil Bader-Jarvis, crossed the finish in 19:06.31.

Sophomores Truman Hood and Anders Bergquist were packed together as the 45th and 47th-place finishers. Hood ran his second-fastest career time of 19:45.16 and Bergquist posted a drop in his 5K times from last year at 19:53.61.

Evan Mellish, a freshman, and Anthony Kovic, a sophomore, rounded out the Falcons varsity runners. Mellish finished in 20:09.49 in his first 5K, and Kovic ran a 20:28, his second-fastest 5K time.

The South Whidbey Invitational cross country meet draws teams from across Washington. South Whidbey was the site of the District 1 meet for several years, which was an incentive for teams to visit the course prior to the state-qualifying race. Other highlights from the invite were: Patrick Gibson, a senior from Squalicum had the best overall time of 15:46.78. Gibson won the Division 1 boys race. Jackson High School (Everett) won the Division 1 boys team award, barely edging out Kamiak’s total time by 10 seconds.

Spencer Stewart, a freshman from Eisenhower (Yakima) won the junior varsity boys race in 17:08.9. King’s won the Division 2 boys title with a total time of 1:31:31.66; South Whidbey’s total time was 1:34:59.57.

Mikayla Pivec of Lynnwood, a freshman, won the Division 2 girls in 19:53.05.

Sally Larson, a senior from Cedar Park Christian School, won the Division 1 race in 18:29.22. Sehome High School won the Division 1 girls race.

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