MONTESANO — There were no surprises at Thursday’s 1A Evergreen league championship cross-country meet, and that suited a few athletes from Hoquiam and Montesano programs just fine.
Hoquiam’s Valerie Roloff and Adam Petersen won individual league titles and the Montesano boys won a team championship at Lake Sylvia State Park, similar to how they’ve been performing throughout the season.
In the girls race, Roloff, who finished eighth as a freshman in last year’s league championship, ran the 5,000 meter course with a time of 21:53, a five-second improvement over her previous career best.
The Grizzlies sophomore ran neck-and-neck with Forks’ Madelyn Archibald before making her move in the last mile.
“My goal was to stay with (Archibald) the whole time and then pass her in the last mile,” Roloff said of her title-winning race. “But I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to go for it.”
Hoquiam sophomore Valerie Roloff, right, leads Forks’ Madelyn Archibald in the last mile of the girls league-championship cross-country race on Thursday at Lake Sylvia State Park in Montesano. (Ryan Sparks | Grays Harbor News Group)
Roloff explained that a combination of her feeling energized while sensing Archibald was fading caused her to change her race strategy on the fly.
“I heard her breathing in the background, so I guessed that she was slowing down,” Roloff said, explaining that she decided to start her typically strong, late-race kick sooner than expected. “So I tried to speed up while I could (to extend the lead).”
Roloff’s kick put enough distance between her and Archibald that she cruised to a 18-second victory.
“She took the lead and stuck with it,” Hoquiam head coach Carly Giles said of Roloff’s race. “She’s maturing more as an athlete and competitor and it’s showing in her races.”
Roloff said the league championship inspires her to look forward to the races yet to come.
“This year, I definitely tried a lot harder than last year. I pushed myself more,” she said. “It makes me feel like I can do much better next year. … I knew that if I could (win a league title) I would feel good about myself and I can do more in the future.”
Archibald finished second with a time of 22:05, leading the Spartans to a girls team title with 25 points, nine better than second-place Montesano.
The Bulldogs were led by Elizabeth Peterson, who ran a time of 22:39 to finish third overall.
In the boys race, Petersen stayed in the lead pack with a group of Monte runners before pulling away in the final half-mile to edge Monte’s Martin Shuck for the league title. The Hoquiam sophomore, who has dominated league competition this season, dealt with physical pain through much of the race.
“I started to cramp up after the first mile,” he admitted before offering his in-race solution to the problem. “And then I tried to smile, and it’s super-hard to smile during a race. … By smiling, I didn’t focus on the pain.”
Petersen crossed the finish line with a time of 17:36, beating Shuck by seven seconds. Forks’ Colton Duncan placed third at 18:19 followed by a pair of Monte runners — Tucker Stecher (18:20) and Josef Aschenbrenner (18:21) — in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Tristan Bodwell (18:42, 7th) and Andy Fry (18:57, 10th) rounded out Monte’s top five.
“Last time we raced here, (Petersen) was second to Martin Shuck,” Giles said of Petersen’s race strategy. “Last time, he went out way too fast and Martin was able to catch him in the end. I think he ran it a little smarter this time. Thought through everything a little more. And he smiles in our practices too. He’s always smiling. He smiles through the pain.”
Led by Shuck, Monte’s boys team won with a point total of 21, besting Forks (36) and Tenino (67) for the league championship.
The eventual 1A Evergreen league champion, Hoquiam’s Adam Petersen, second from right, races along the Lake Sylvia Road surrounded by a trio of Montesano runners, including league runner-up, Martin Shuck (16) at the league championship meet on Thursday. (Ryan Sparks | Grays Harbor News Group)
“I saw some of the times we ran today and our bottom-end kids are doing better,” Monte head coach James Edwards said. “It’s how close we can run as a group, that’s what helped us out last year and, hopefully, next week when we go down to districts.”
Edwards added that at this point of the season, there isn’t much training left to be done.
“The hay is pretty much in the barn,” he said. “Mentally is probably where the big challenges are right now. They have to keep improving and go out and do the job next week. … I tell them, ‘It’s in your heart and your desire. If you guys want to go to state, you can do it. It’s there for you.’ I can’t coach desire or heart, it’s up to them.”
For full results, visit athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=150068&show=all.
Hoquiam’s Adam Petersen, right, leads Montesano’s Martin Shuck in the boys race of the 1A Evergreen league-championship meet on Thursday in Montesano. (Ryan Sparks | Grays Harbor News Group)
