LR cross country heads to state with 11 contestants

The Varsity 7 boys of the Raiders Cross Country team are heading to state on Friday after qualifying as the number-three team from the District 5-6 race Saturday in Wenatchee, along with Loryn Moore, who took the girls' championship.

Liberty Bell came in first with 71 team points. Tonasket finished second with 92 team points. LR edged out Manson by just one point for the last team spot to state, 102-103.

That's a scenario the Raiders had talked about.

"Team scoring is found by adding your team's places together and comparing that to the other teams' scores, with the lowest score winning," Raider Head Coach Gary Darnold explained.

"Before the boy's race we talked about how our team qualifying for state could come down to any one person on the team finishing one place different," Darnold said, "and that is just what happened. We qualified, beating the next team by one point."

A big reason the boys qualified was the number of personal-record times the Raiders picked up.

"All the runners put their best effort into racing Saturday," Darnold said. Eleven of the team's 15 runners PR'd - "a very good day to peak."

On the girls side, eighth-grader Loryn Moore is the 2014 District 5-6 champion, finishing with a time of 21 minutes, 42 seconds. Moore was 14 seconds ahead of Camille Wilson and two other Tonasket girls, all of whom are of high school age.

Kayla St. Pierre qualified as a state alternate, coming in sixth place with the PR time of 22:08. Alyssa Oates came in at 11th place, finishing with a PR of 25:28.

Chris Oates led the Raider boys with a PR of 18:08 for 22nd place. Ray Yazzie ran for a PR at 18:31 and 14th. Robert George was the third Raider to finish and the fifth to PR with a time of 19:12 and 18th place. Cameron Tillman came across the finish line at 20:35, a PR time, and took home 33rd. Will Friedlander was the fifth Raider to finish and the seventh to PR, finishing 36th at 20:41. Cole Trotter finished 44th at 21:35. Kaden Trotter took 48th with 22:04. All seven will represent LR at state on Saturday.

In the District JV race the Raiders had more PRs and another champion. Quincy Williams is the District 5-6 JV boys champion and is a state alternate after finishing with the career PR time of 22:09. Bradley Wilder came in third with the PR of 23:30, and is the other alternate for the Raiders.

Edmund Fenton took a season-high placing of fourth 24:15. Braxton Hernandez finished fifth with the PR time of 24:34. Aidan Derr took sixth in 25:28.

Taking 11 to the the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association State Championships is the most for LR in many years. The Raiders will be sent off on Friday from the High School gym to head south for Pasco.

State Cross Country will take place on Saturday at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco with the B girls race starting the day at 10 a.m. The B boys race is set at 11:30. Awards will be presented later in the afternoon.