The Vashon High School cross country team took to the road twice last week.

On Thursday they competed in a four-way meet hosted by Cascade Christian, where runners completed a 3.1-mile course at Clark’s Creek Park in Puyallup.

Both Maddi Groen and Natalie VanDevanter placed in the top 10 in the girls’ race. Groen come in fifth with a time of 21:15, and VanDevanter finished ninth in 22:08.

Callan Foster, who is in her first year of cross country, rounded out the Pirate trio with a time of 24:40. The girls team, with just three runners, didn’t have enough to score or place at the meet. The Cedar Park Christian girls took first place, followed by Eatonville and Cascade Christian.

For the boys meet, Eatonville edged out Cedar Park Christian, 28-30, to win the day. The Pirates finished with 89 points.

With 45 boys competing in the meet, Landon Summers took eighth place with a time of  18:39. Olin Nespor clocked 19:10 for 14th place overall, and Kanit Jungsakulrujire and Nathan Williams placed 19th and 20th.

On Saturday the Pirate runners headed to Port Townsend for the Fort Warden Invitational.

McMurray Middle School runner Jeffrey Parrish took first in the middle school meet with a time of 10:34 on the 1.53-mile course.

In the high school meet, Liberty from Issaquah took the team wins in both the boys’ and girls’ races. With the Pirates putting fewer then five runners in the boys and girls races, they were not able to score any team points.

The cross country team will be back to full strength Thursday as they travel to Kelsey Creek Park in Bellevue for a 4k invitational meet.

— Kevin Ross is a cross country coach at Vashon High School.