Area Sports by Michael Dashiell

Let the second season begin.

Sequim's cross country squads closed out their dual meet schedule last week in Belfair, dropping decisions to Port Angeles, but beating host North Mason in both boys and girls divisions on Oct. 14.

Sequim's Allison Cutting topped a strong field of P.A. girls with a 21:01 finish, edging P.A.'s Alison Maxwell by nine seconds and Chanda Romney, the former Forks running star, by more than 16 seconds.

Sequim's Taylor Roads finished fifth (24:36), but an over-matched girls squad couldn't overcome the Roughrider depth in a 16-point loss.

On the boys' side, Sequim freshman Adrian Clifford (18:41) was third, Alex Jenkins (18:57) was fifth and Colby Robb (19:01) was seventh, but Port Angeles managed to place all five runners in the top 10 for a 31-38 victory (lowest score wins).

North Mason, led by boys' race winner Andrew Crain, finished a distant third.

Sequim coach Harold Huff said this was the last race

Sequim runners would come in with tired, over-trained legs.

"They've been training hard; they just went a little flat the last couple of races," Huff said, noting he's easing back on the training now that the postseason is beginning. "I just like the fact that, as hard we trained, they hung in there reasonably well."

Port Angeles' John Christian took second in the boys' race.



Wolves get Lichten back for league meet

Audrey Lichten, Sequim's No. 2 runner who's been out all season with an injury, is slated to race at the Olympic League meet, set for Thursday, Oct. 22, at The Cedars at Dungeness golf course.

"She's certainly not in race shape for Audrey (but) she'll certainly help the team score," Huff said.

The league meet features varsity and junior varsity races for nine Olympic League teams, including the 3A schools (Port Angeles, Bremerton, North Kitsap, Olympic), 2A schools (Sequim, Kingston, Klahowya, North Mason and 1A Port Townsend.

"It's going to be a real dogfight for second place," Huff said, acknowledging that North Kitsap, ranked in the top 10 in both girls and boys 3A polls, likely will sweep both divisions.

Challenging the Vikings for the boys title will be the Roughriders, Wolves and Port Townsend Redskins, although P.T.'s top runner, Bereket Piatt, has been struggling with an illness.

"The (Sequim) guys have just got to race at another level," Huff said.

The Sequim coach said his girls could place as high as fourth if they race well.

But the race to watch, perhaps, is the individual battle between Cutting and Kingston's Ruby Roberts. Cutting, the defending 2A cross country champion, placed second to Roberts by more than 20 seconds at last year's meet and 10 seconds back at districts before catching and passing Roberts at state. Roberts is the 2007 state 2A champ.

"Alli's been training well," Huff said. "She's had her best two weeks of training all year."



Reach Michael Dashiell at miked@sequimgazette.com.