Cross Country teams now ranked

The OHHS Boys and Girls Cross Country teams are both ranked 9th in the most recent Seattle Times rankings!

Great job Wildcats!

Cross Country 2011-10-29 at South Whidbey

Both the boys and girls OHHS Cross Country teams were at South Whidbey HS Saturday afternoon for the District Meet. The top 2 teams would go on to the state meet in Pasco.

Last week at the league meet, the Oak Harbor girls came in second to Glacier Peak, this week with the Northwest League 3A teams added, the result was still the same. Glacier Peak first, Oak Harbor second. The Grizzlies tallied 22 points and the Wildcats 62. Shorecrest was in 3rd with 114, Getchell 5th with 118 and Meadowdale 5th with 192. Individually, the winner of the 5k course was Amy-Eloise Neale from Glacier Peak, who finished in 17:46. Second place finished in 18:51, also from Glacier Peak. Third was a girl from Meadowdale.

Christina Wicker was first for the Wildcats, finishing in 8th overall with a time of 19:43. Then, in roughly every other position, 5 other Wildcats crossed the line. Hannah Bressler was 10th, Heather Dale 12th, Alex Laiblin 15th, Ashley Everett 17th and Carlie Kenny 19th. Taylor Von Grey was 28th, out of 79 runners. The second place finish sends the entire team to state for the second year in a row.

Last week, the boys finished in second place, by just 6 points, to 10th ranked Glacier Peak. Saturday, the boys got their revenge, scoring 53 points as they won the District 1 team title and also earned their second trip in a row to the state meet. Glacier Peak finished 2nd with 79 points. Everett was 4th with 116 points, Mt. Vernon 4th with 134 points and 5th Mountlake Terrace with 150 points.

Individually, a Ferndale runner won the race in 16:20, with Everett in 2nd and Shorecrest in 3rd. For the Wildcats, Matt Reith was 6th overall in 16:43, followed closely by Josh Schrum in 7th and John Rodeheffer in 8th. John Kaltenbach was 11th, Stephen Miller 21st, Esai Cunningham 22nd and Dakota Powers 30th out of 83 runners.

The state meet is next week, Saturday November 5th, at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco, WA.

Boys photos are posted HERE.

Girls photos are posted HERE.

Cross Country 2011-10-22 at Lakewood HS

The WESCO 3A championships were held Saturday afternoon at Lakewood HS just outside of Arlington. As expected, Glacier Peak won both the boys and girls titles, but in second place in both were the Oak Harbor Wildcats.

GP dominated in the girls race, and no Oak Harbor girls were in the top 10 finishers, but the Wildcats did capture the next 3, and put 3 more into the top 20. Hannah Bressler was 11th, Christina Wicker 12th, Heather Dale 13th, Alex Laiblin 16th, Ashley Everett 18th and Taylor Von Grey in 20th. Also in the varsity race were Carlie Kenny at 21st and Jonalynn Horn in 24th.

In the girls JV race, Rachel Crowther was the top OH runner and was 8th overall. Also running were Emily Bain, Nikki Blanchard, Gracey Pauley and Sophie Rath.

On the boys side, the gap between Glacier Peak and Oak Harbor was only 6 points. GP scored 56 to the Wildcats' 62. That was a lot closer than the 47-point gap in the girls race. The top OH runner was Matt Reith, who finished in 4th place overall. Two other Wildcats also finished in the top twenty - Josh Schrum in 8th, John Rodeheffer in 9th and John Kaltenbach in 15th. Also in the boys varsity race for OH were Stephen Miller, Dakota Powers, Esai Cunningham, Nathan Wagner, Patrick Mayer, Thomas Honeycutt, Adriel Eckart, Wyatt Homola and Clayton Richardson.

In the boys JV race, Isaac Matthews was the top OH finisher, in 21st overall. Also running were Brendan Bristow, Joel Erickson, Gunnar Melnick, Ryuta Meany and Alex Berry.

Next for the Cross Country team is the District race, held at South Whidbey High School in Langley. The first 3A race starts at 12:10pm, and admission is free.

Cross Country @ City Beach and Seaside

The Oak Harbor Cross Country team held their only home meet of the year Thursday afternoon at Oak Harbor's City Beach park. Visiting were squads from 4A schools Cascade, Monroe and Kamiak.

The races started with the boys JV, and Oak Harbor dominated, capturing the first 8 places. Those first eight OH runners were Stephen Miller (16:53), Isaac Matthews, Adriel Eckart, Clayton Richardson, freshman Joel Erickson, Alex Krantz, and Nathan Wagner. Also in the race were Brendan Bristow, Gunnar Melnick, Ryuta Meany, Stacy Jappert and Alex Berry.

In the boys varsity race, Kamiak captured 3 of the top 7 places to win the met with 25 points. Oak Harbor finished 3rd with 65 points. First for the Wildcats was Matt Reith in 8th place and a time of 15:29. Freshman John Rodeheffer was just 3 seconds behind in 9th overall. Also earning points for the Wildcats were Josh Schrum in 10th, John Kaltenbach in 14th and Esai Cunningham in 27th overall. Freshman Dakota Powers finished 29th, Thomas Honeycutt 31st, Chris Opdyke 34th and Caley Powers 35th.

81 photos of the boys JV and varsity at City Beach are posted HERE.

Oak Harbor's Christina Wicker and Monroe's Megan Bull ran neck and neck for most of the 4,500 meter race, but Bull pulled off the win at the end, finishing in 17:21. Wicker finished in 17:27 for second place. Alex Laiblin, Hannah Bressler, Heather Dale and Taylor Von Grey rounded out the top 5 OH finishers, earning the Wildcats a first place team finish with 36 points. Kamiak was second with 43. Other OH runners were Jonalynn Horn, Ashley Everett, Mackenzie Jackson, Rachel Crowther, Carlie Kenny, Emily Bain, Nikki Blanchard, Emily Saar, Sophie Rath, Grace Pauley and Alexa Holmly.

Click HERE for 77 photos of the girls at City Beach.

The next day, both the boys and girls both left for Seaside, Oregon for the annual 3-course challenge. Laid out there is a 4,500 meter easy course, a 5,000 meter moderate course and a 5k hard course. There were a total of 79 teams fielding over 1,700 runners.

On the easy course there were 294 boys and 264 girls. Dakota Powers was the top OH runner, finishing in 22nd overall in a time of 16:40. His brother Caley, Alex Krantz, Nathan Wagner, Gunnar Melnick and Chris Opdyke were all in the top 100. Jonalynn Horn was the first OH girl, finishing in 12th with a time of 19:51. Ashley Everett, Mackenzie Jackson and Nikki Blanchard were also in the top 100.

John Rodheffer finished 2nd overall out of 375 runners in the boys moderate race, clocking in at 18:45. Esai Cunningham, Stephen Miller, Clayton Richardson, Isaac Matthews, Wyatt Homola and Patrick Mayer were all in the top 100. For the girls, Hannah Bressler was 7th out of 238 girls, finishing in 23:38. Taylor Von Grey was 18th and Carlie Kenny 25th.

Finally, in the hard course, OH senior Matt Reith was 6th of 366 boys, crossing the line in 20:15. Josh Schrum was 20th and John Kaltenbach 22nd. Oak Harbor junior Christina Wicker competed against 227 other girls on the hard course and beat them all, coming in first overall with a time of 23:48. Alex Laiblin was 28th, Heather Dale 31st and Rachel Crowther 73rd.

Cross Country at Baker Invite

The Girls cross country team continues to justify their state ranking (#7) by winning the 16-team Mt. Baker Invitational this past Saturday.

Addy Royal was the first Wildcat across the finish line, posting a time of 19:24 over the 5K course for 6th place overall. 7th and 8th overall were Allison Duvenez and Christina Wicker. Abby Leete was 10th, Alex Laiblin 14th and Hannah Bressler 18th, all out of 111 runners. The varsity girls' point total came in at 40, with the 2nd place team (Burlington) scoring 109.

Taylor Von Grey won the girls JV race with a time of 21:03 while Heather Dale, Emily Bain and McKenzie Jackson were also in the top 20.

On the boys side, Coupeville's Tyler King won the boys varsity race in 15:05, nearly a minute faster than the 2nd place finisher. Josh Schrum was the top OH finisher with a time of 17:59 adn 55th out of 120.

Caley Powers and Clay Richardson finished 2nd and 11th out of 97 in the Freshman boys race.

Cross Country 2010-09-30 at City Beach

The Oak Harbor Cross Country team hosted the only home meet of the season last Thursday at Oak Harbor's City Beach. Visiting the Wildcats were the 3A Lynnwood Royals and 4A Lake Stevens Vikings.

Running first were the JV boys, with Josh Schrum coming in first place with a time of 17:15 over the 2.75 mile course. Adriel Eckart was 5th overall in 18:28. Sidney Dawson and Aaron Yonkman were only 5 seconds apart in 12th and 13th, Brendan Bristow and Ryuta Meany were 10 seconds apart in 19th and 20th. Dustin Mirabal was 25th, Steven Souza 29th, Ben Pralle 31st and Stacy Jappert 35th. Lake won the JV team title with 22 points. OH was 2nd with 39 points and Lynnwood earned 81 points. (Low score wins).

The girls run a combined JV/Varsity race. Two Vikings crossed the finish line in 1st and 2nd, then there were 7 straight Wildcats. As is becoming tradition, the girls run as a group, saving themselves for Saturday's prestigious Baker Invite. Six of the girls crossed the line over a 3-second period in the order Abby Leete, Allison Duvenez, Adrianna Royal, Christina Wicker, Hannah Bressler, and Alex Laiblin. Olivia Meyer crossed 14 seconds later in 9th place. The winning time was 18:15 and the top OH time was 19:01.

Taylor Von Grey was the first OH JV girl, finishing in 91:44. Heather Dale, Emily Bain and McKenzie Jackson finished 16-17-18 overall, Bailey Martinez was 28th, Megan Maronde 30th and Ashley Cooley 33rd. Oak Harbor win the team title with 25 points, Lake Stevens was 2nd with 36 and Lynnwood 3rd with 85.

In the Boys Varsity race, the winner was Tyler King in 15:13, wearing Coupeville colors but training with and strongly supported by Oak Harbor runners. Lake Stevens finished in 2nd place, over 30 seconds behind King. The first true Oak Harbor runner was Caley Powers, 4th overall with a time of 16:06. Wyatt Homola, Mike Kincy and Clayton Richardson finished 13-14-15, Nate Miller 18, Thomas Honeycutt and Chris OpDyke were 20th and 21st. Lake Stevens was first overall with 18 points, Oak Harbor 2nd with 46 and Lynnwood 3rd with 82.

165 photos covering all 3 races are posted HERE.

Cross Country at Seaside

Showing that their #7 ranking in state is deserved, the Oak Harbor girls cross country team finished in 1st place at the annual 3 Course Challenge in Seaside, Oregon. The Wildcat team of 7 runners had a combined total of 65 points. Tahoma was in 2nd place with 146 total (low score wins).

The Wildcat win came over 92 teams and over 2,000 runners from 4 states.

Way to go ladies!

Girls Cross-Country ranked in state!

The Oak Harbor girls Cross Country team is #7 in the most recent Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association rankings. League opponent Glacier Peak is the current 3A #1 team.

The Cross Country team will have a single home meet this fall, on September 30th at a location to be determined. The meet will include Oak Harbor, Lynnwood and Lake Stevens.