LAKEWOOD — Quenton Lanese accomplished the first of what he hopes is three consecutive championships in his sophomore postseason.
The Olympia cross country phenom earned his first career South Puget Sound League title on Thursday, Oct. 22 at Fort Steilacoom Park, nearly one year to the day after he finished in second place in the same meet behind South Kitsap’s Isaac Benjamin.
Lanese, who ran a time of 15 minutes and 22.2 seconds at last year’s league championships, took first on Thursday at 15:43.3.
“It’s pretty special because I haven’t gotten it before. The league meet is typically so small that there’s not much competition, but last year there was some competition,” Lanese said. “It’s nice to be able to win it now.”
Lanese had some competition early in the race, as he was flanked by Curtis’ Asher Pepin and Yelm’s Marcos Andujar for a while. But he deliberately turned on the jets on the second hill in the last mile to pull away and win by five seconds. Pepin took second place, and Andujar finished in third place at 15:51.5.
Lanese, following a second-place state finish last season, has increased his stamina through threshold workouts and other improved habits. He recorded back-to-back races of under 15 minutes earlier this month.
“He’s put in a ton of work. He’s doing all the stuff that he needs to be doing in terms of sleep and workouts and rest,” Olympia boys head coach Jesse Stevick said of Lanese. “He’s really put it as a high priority.”
The Olympia and Yelm boys finished in third and fourth, respectively, in the team standings and both qualified for districts. Yelm senior Peter Robbins took sixth place at 16:20.6, and Olympia sophomore Quin Zola was the Bears’ second-highest finisher in 12th place at 16:46.4.
Senior Jack McDurmon (14th at 16:49.1) and junior Sebastian Olson (24th at 17:07.8) also clinched top-25 spots.
In the girls race, Olympia senior Carolina Schilter came in motivated for a couple of reasons. It has been a tough year for Schilter, who battled illness early in the season and admitted that races haven’t gone as she would’ve liked so far. Additionally, she, along with the rest of the Bears, wanted to step up for sophomore Leah Hennen, who was unable to run due to injury.
Schilter, who finished in 10th place in each of her past two trips to the league meet, finished in third place at 18:55.8, her best time at Fort Steilacoom Park.
“I’m really happy with it, especially since the season hasn’t been necessarily what I was hoping for,” she said. “This wasn’t a PR, but for this course, it was a lot better than I’ve ever run on this course. The first mile always feels like it goes super fast, so I was trying not to go too fast and die. Maintaining up the big hills is always pretty challenging.”
Olympia, without its top runner in Hennen, still finished in second place as a team behind Curtis behind five top-15 runners. Sophomore Gemma Stevick earned her second straight top-10 SPSL finish with a sixth-place run at 19:26.8. Senior Gretchen Hillier, by the smallest of margins, won the race for 11th place at 20:02.3 over sophomore Eliza Johnson, who recorded the same time. Sophomore Caitlin Lanese finished in 15th place at 20:23.2 in her first SPSL league meet.
“They stepped up and ran really well. Our main goal today was to qualify for the district meet, and we did that,” Olympia girls head coach Cris Violette said. “I’m proud of them for that. Even without our number one runner, they still ran really well.”
The Yelm girls also punched their ticket to districts, led by fifth-place finisher Deejay Taylor at 19:22.6 in her final SPSL meet. The senior has improved each time she’s competed on the Fort Steilacoom course; she ran 19:56.0 at the league meet last year and 19:32.0 in the Fort Steilacoom Invitational on Sept. 19.
Senior Amaya Brown took 22nd place at 20:47.2, and junior Ryleigh Hernandez clinched 26th place at 20:51.7.
Olympia and Yelm will both compete at the Westside Classic at Chambers Creek on Saturday, Oct. 31.
