CV girls snap Mt. Spokane’s win streak

A soft rain began to fall at the beginning of the Greater Spokane League girls cross country meet between unbeaten three-time defending champion Mt. Spokane and title contender Central Valley.

CV’s Bears also rained on the Wildcats’ parade. Their 27-28 triumph ended Mt. Spokane’s GSL winning streak at 53 consecutive league meets.

It didn’t end the Wildcats’ string of league titles, however, but they must share their fourth with the Bears and University Titans, all with 9-1 meet records.

“They raced hard,” said Mt. Spokane coach Sean Linder of CV. “I saw when it came time to dig, they had tough, focused looks on their faces. They wanted it.”

In cross country, a distance team is only as good as its fifth finisher and that spelled the difference in the title-deciding race.

The Wildcats got a 1-2 finish from Jessica Klier and Courtney Zalud in times of 19 minutes, 40 seconds and 19:43, some of the fastest in course history at Siemers Ranch.

But sophomore Eden Lake took her turn as CV’s top finisher as the team had the next three finishers and the outcome swung on the finishing sprint of No. 5 scorer, junior Melinda Miller.

She ran past Mt. Spokane’s No. 4 in the final stages of the race to swing the outcome.

“I thought I wasn’t much of a sprinter,” Miller said. “But I just saw her and I said for once I’m going to go for it and I did. It felt great.”

Both teams beat Gonzaga Prep.

CV’s share of the title was the first for coach Dennis McGuire and the school’s third. It came against a team that Linder said is better than last year’s second-place state finisher.

“We became a team today,” McGuire said. “They ran exactly as I asked. We wanted to gang up on them. It was an amazing day.”

U-Hi topped Mead (7-3) 23-34 at Plantes Ferry Park to join the crowd in first place. Mead’s Nikki Codd was individual winner in 19:04. The Titans had five of the next seven finishers.

At Seven Mile, Lewis and Clark swept Rogers (1-9) and Ferris (0-10), LC’s Eleanor Siler the individual winner.

Shadle Park (4-6) freshman Andrea Nelson obliterated the course record by 1:02 at East Valley to lead a sweep of North Central (3-7) and the host Knights (2-8). Nelson timed 18:33.

Boys: Ferris (10-0), Mead (9-1) and CV (8-2) swept their season finales to finish in that order atop the GSL.

David Hickerson led the champion Saxons, who had six of the top 10 finishers at Seven Mile to sweep LC (5-5) and Rogers (0-10).

Dylan Hatcher and Kelvin Daratha paced Mead’s five-runner sweep of U-Hi (5-5). Hatcher edged Daratha 15:48 to 15:49. Just 32 seconds separated the Mead quintet.

Sean Coyle and Tyler Thatcher went 1-2 for CV’s Bears, who had three others in the top 10 to beat Mt. Spokane (4-6) and G-Prep (3-7).

In the other finale, NC (7-3) beat Shadle (3-7) and host EV (1-9). Shadle’s Peter Miller won in 16:21, but NC had the next three finishers and six in the top 10.