Ferris, Mead come up short
PORTLAND – Two Spokane-area cross country teams finished in the top five at Nike Team Nationals on Saturday, but victory wasn’t in the cards for the top-ranked Ferris boys or their rivals from Mead.
Ferris, running as Spokane XC Club, finished third. And Mead XC Club was fifth.
Both of them were chasing Bridgetown XC Club from Coatesville, Pa., which won the national championship.
“We didn’t have our best race today,” Ferris senior Cameron Quackenbush said after placing fifth overall. “We have been in the spotlight most of the season, ranked No. 1. We had a big target on our backs.”
Ferris was always in the mix on the mucky course, saturated by nearly 12 inches of November rain – a Portland record.
At the 2,000-meter mark, Ferris was six points out of first. By 3,000 meters, the team was two points back, and ahead of the eventual winners.
But the pack wasn’t able to stay bunched together. David Hickerson (16th), Nick LaPlante (39th), Pat Maloney (44th) and Stephen Olsen (58th) rounded out Ferris’ scoring.
Olsen is usually Ferris’ third-fastest runner, and Hickerson often runs neck-and-neck with Quackenbush.
“It definitely didn’t go as well as we wanted it to,” Quackenbush said. “The conditions here, we tried to prepare for them, but there’s no way you really can.”
The 5,000-meter, European-style course at Portland Meadows horse racing track is spectator friendly but also challenging. It wasn’t as wet as 2005, but there were stretches of ankle-deep mud that demanded strength and disrupted rhythm.
Mead continued to sorely miss Taylor Nepon, a two-time NTN participant and the team’s top returning runner. Mead was the strongest team in the field through its top four runners, but dropped off from there.
Kelly Lynch (ninth), Kelvin Daratha (11th), Dylan Hatcher (18th), Mario Abata (41st) and Ryan Bishop (108th) were the team’s five scorers.
“We came here with pretty high expectations,” Hatcher said. “A lot of us have run here before.”
Mead was a surprising third in 2004, and fourth last year.
“Our top three packed pretty well,” Hatcher said. “On a course like this you have to keep pushing it, grind it out, and get it done.”
Both teams endured three extra weeks of training after the Washington state meet, even when it meant running in 6 inches of snow and freezing temperatures.
“We like it like that,” Hatcher said.
Mead beat Ferris just once in six meetings and was hoping to get them again.
“We were ready for this,” Hatcher said. “We had that loss (to Ferris) at state for motivation.”
Simi Valley, Calif., was second to Coatesville, Pa., with 148 points. Steve Murdock of Clifton Park, N.Y., was the overall winner in 16 minutes, 26.9 seconds. Quackenbush missed one of the two qualifying spots for Foot Locker nationals by two places and 3 seconds.
Manlius XC Club (Fayetteville-Manlius, N.Y.) won the girls championship by 50 points, becoming the third different team from New York to win the title in three years.
Ashley Higginson of Colts Neck, N.J., won the girls race in a time of 19:18.4.
Foot Locker West Regional
Freshman Andrea Nelson of Shadle Park was the top area girls finisher at the Foot Locker West Regional at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., finishing the 5,000 in 19:43 for 42nd place in the girls seeded race. Jordan Hasay of Arroyo Grande, Calif., a sophomore, won in 17:43. The race had 128 finishers.
The top area boys finisher was junior Steve Hicks of North Central. His time of 16:53 was 46th in the seeded race that had 193 finishers. Senior Matthew Tebok of Albuquerque, N.M., won in 15:46.
The top eight finishers in the seeded races advanced to next weekend’s nationals.