Spartans stellar at year’s first league XC meet

By Luciano Marano • September 30, 2019 12:30 pm
Steven Albergine photo | Bainbridge High School cross country runners (left to right) freshman Will Browning, senior Reuben Allen and sophomore Mace Korytko at the team’s first league meet at Woodland Park in Seattle.
Steven Albergine photo | Bainbridge High School cross country runners (left to right) freshman Will Browning, senior Reuben Allen and sophomore Mace Korytko at the team’s first league meet at Woodland Park in Seattle.

The Bainbridge High School cross country team had two meets in their first week of full-team competition this season.

In the 29-school non-league Capital Invitational in Olympia on Sept. 14, three Spartans came away with three medals — freshman Will Browning (eight place), junior Cassidy Parr (15th) and freshman Lena Wood (19th).

BIXC bests in the other class-by-class races over the 2.3 mile “jamboree” course included sophomore Mace Korytko, junior Sam Morris, senior Reuben Allen, sophomore Mckennah Thompson and senior Jeanne Gary, an exchange student from France.

Four days later, the team competed against four other Metro teams in their first league meet at Woodland Park in Seattle.

While practicing specific pacing with teammates, many Spartan veterans substantially lowered their personal 5K records, including Conor Babcock O’Neill (a 2:09 improvement), Garrett Peterson (1:54), Mace Korytko (1:07), Garrett Swanson (1:00), Maxwell Strom (58 seconds), Zoe Lim (46 seconds), Ethan Glasby (34 seconds), Cassidy Parr (29 seconds), Nick Grant (23 seconds), Madie Medina (14 seconds) and, most dramatically, sophomore Evan Gray, who cut 3:23 from his best freshman time.

Cassidy Parr again led the girls team, finishing 16th in 22:30, followed by Mckennah Thompson, Zoe Lim, Cate Gleason, and Lena Wood.

The boys junior varsity was paced by Arnau Escuin, an exchange student from Barcelona, who finished fourth (19:05), with Nick Grant and freshman Brogan Rice not far behind. And junior Sean Westerhout moved up several places in the final two miles to place fourth (17:15) in the boys varsity race, followed by the close pack of Reuben Allen (18:22), Will Browning (18:23) and Mace Korytko (18:25).

Following a second Metro meet at West Seattle’s Lincoln Park on the Sept. 25, and a trip for the top 15 runners to the highly competitive Bellevue Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 29, the Bainbridge harriers will race in their season’s first and only home meet, co-hosted by North Kitsap High, on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at Battle Point Park.

The girls race starts at 3:40, the boys at 4:20 p.m.