The Vashon High School cross country team hosted the Orting High School Cardinals and the Life Christian Academy Eagles at a home meet last Thursday.
Vashon’s cross country course utilizes athletic fields at the high school and McMurray Middle School and a section of trail that links the two schools. The double-lap course, which measures 3.1 miles, finishes at the high school’s football field.
The 1.8-mile middle school race featured two runners from Vashon: Graham Peet and Nathan Williams.
Kieran Kim-Murphy had a notable performance in the boys’ JV race. Shortly after playing the national anthem on the violin for the crowd at the starting line, he clocked a time of 23:46, his fastest run of the season.
Vashon’s varsity boys saw some competition from an Orting team that has greatly improved since last season.
Jasper Heckman, representing the Cardinals, was the overall winner in the boys’ varsity race with a time of 17:49.
Vashon’s Tylor Heit finished third at 17:54, setting a new best time for the season. Colin Andrus and Aidan Cyra also clocked their fastest times that day.
The team scoring saw Orting victorious with 24 points. Vashon had 34 points, and Life Christian was incomplete.
In the girls’ varsity race, Orting beat out the Pirates 23-38.
Vashon’s Savannah Krug finished second with a time of 21:40, a personal record for this course.
Freshman Maddie Groen put in a solid performance to finish fourth overall with a time of 22:47. Peri Roberts stopped the clock at 24:00.
This race also featured a new course record that was broken by Kayleigh McCoy of Orting, who won the race with a time of 20:57. She beat her own record from last year by 25 seconds.
On Saturday, the Pirates made the 160-mile trip to the Gorge Amphitheater for an invitational that was put on by Quincy High School. Twenty-five other schools attended the meet.
In the boys’ JV race, freshman Jack Brenner took fifth place out of 111 runners with a personal best time of 18:32. He was handed a place winner’s ribbon at the finish line. Brenner was as far back as 12th place before he made a charge in the last mile.
Cole Devereau and Samattana Sawangraka, an exchange student from Thailand, also recorded personal best times.
Freshman Maddi Groen finished 30th out of 83 competitors with a time of 22:10 in the girls’ varsity race. The time was a 37-second improvement over her race on Thursday.
Junior Peri Roberts set an all-time personal record of 23:36 in the varsity race as well.
Representing the Pirates in the boys’ varsity race was senior co-captain Colin Andrus, who crossed the finish line with his all-time personal best of 18:06 for the 5K distance.
“I ran an even pace and it was a good race,” Andrus said after the event.
All in all the Pirates had a great trip to eastern Washington.
The team is looking forward to a rematch with Orting and Seattle Christian at Orting High School this Thursday.
— Kevin Ross is the boys cross country coach at Vashon High School.
