Alexis Fuller won her race and the Evergreen Storm Track Team finished second in two girls divisions on Saturday at the Pacific Northwest Association Junior Olympics cross country championships.
Fuller won the 4-kilometer race for girls born in 1997 and 1998. Her time was 15 minutes, 6.3 seconds was 7 seconds faster than the second-place runner.
The meet, held at Lower Woodland Park in Seattle, was the first step toward the Junior Olympic National Cross Country Championships. The Pacific Northwest Association includes much of Washington state.
The Evergreen Storm is a Vancouver based club that competes in both cross country and track and field.
Led by Fuller, a Union High School freshman, the Storm placed second among six clubs in the Youth Girls Division. Whatcom Tesseract Youth Running Club of Bellingham won the Youth Girls title, placing four girls among the top six runners and scoring 23 points. The Evergreen Storm had 44 team points.
Also running for the Storm in the Youth Girls 4,000-meter race were: Cassie McKinney (eighth, 16:04.88), Maddie Woodson (14th, 16:45.35), Savanna Craig (15th, 16.50.19), Alexa Jones (17th, 17:22.4), Lindsey Lattimer (24th, 17:51.14), Meghan Finley (29th, 18:25.04), and Odaisa Gann (35th, 18:33.38). There were 48 finishers in that race.
The Evergreen Storm will return to Lower Woodland Park in Seattle on Saturday to compete at the regional championships.
The top 20 finishers and top three teams for each age group at the regional meet will be eligible to compete at the national championships. Because she will be representing Washington in Sunday’s Nike Border Clash race on the Nike campus in Beaverton, Fuller will not be with the Storm for the Junior Olympics regionals, according to Storm coach Scott Slamp.
The Storm also placed second as a team at the Pacific Northwest Association meet in the division for girls born in 1999 and 2000. Speed Unlimited of Bellevue won that team title with 32 points and Evergreen was second with 69 points. The first four finishers were Speed Unlimited runners.
The top Evergreen finisher in the 3,000-meter race for girls ages 11-12 was Samantha Rosenkranz, who was fifth in 12:12.51. Also placing for the Storm in the race for age 11-12 girls were: Angelina Krawczyk (10th, 12:22.58), Emily Wilson (12th, 12:40.10), Carlee Reed (15th, 12:46.03), and Alyssa Henry (36th, 14:36.47).
Two boys represented the Evergreen Storm at the meet in Seattle. Elijah Afenegus finished 12th in the 3,000-meter race for boys ages 9-10 with a time of 13:22.02. Will McKinney finished 22nd among boys ages 11-12, completing the 3,000 meters in 12:07.96.
