Mustangs hit winning stride in cross country

By Bruce Cyra • October 17, 2018 1:30 am
The Mustang girls team is led off the starting line in Titlow Park by Yarkin, Medeiros, Waterworth and Huffman (David Waterworth Photo).
The Mustang girls team is led off the starting line in Titlow Park by Yarkin, Medeiros, Waterworth and Huffman (David Waterworth Photo).

The McMurray Middle School Mustang cross country teams moved into the last half of the season continuing their winning ways.

On Oct. 2, the Mustangs hosted runners from seven other schools on their 1.5-mile home course around the school campus and wooded trails. Visiting the island were Bellevue Christian, Crosspoint, Cor Deo, Cascade Christian, Charles Wright, Life Christian and Seattle Christian. The McMurray boys team won the meet with 35 points, while the girls team took third (counting the first three runners per team) behind Charles Wright and Cascade Christian. In their debut, the McMurray sixth-grade runners placed third in the combined girls/boys race.

The Mustangs traveled Oct. 9 to sunny Titlow Park in Tacoma to race against eight other teams over 1.5 miles, with the boys team again taking first and the girls team taking third. The sixth-graders, racing combined again, took second to Cor Deo.

The boys’ top five for McMurray included Ben Larson, Gabe Zapf, Hank McSheehy, Davis Rice and Oli Nielsen, all setting personal bests. The top five times for the Mustang girls belonged to Madeline Yarkin, Alexandra Waterworth, Amelia Medeiros, Taylor Huffman and Elouise Lawrence.

All McMurray grades traveled Oct. 16 to Charles Wright to run on its “steeple chase” course through the campus’s woods, racing over creeks, jumping logs, and going up and down steep hills. The results are posted on the McMurray Cross Country page on athletic.net.

In the high school races, the Pirate boys, led by Cole Hartness and Garrett Mueller, took fourth out of five teams. The Pirate girls, led by Lucy Boyle and Ella Yarkin, took third out of four teams.

The Pirates traveled Oct. 11 to the large Nisqually League meet at Lake Sammamish State Park to race against nine other schools. The Pirate boys took ninth out of 10, with Ursa Medeiros setting a personal best over 5 km in 19:18; the girls team, without a full team of five, did not score, but were pleased by the personal best of senior Simone Newcombe with a time of 24:41. The Pirates travel Oct. 18 to their league championships at Ft. Steilacoom prior to districts on Oct. 27.

— Bruce Cyra