In one of the most loaded cross country races of the regular season, three SW Washington runners put on a show. Centralia’s Ethan Weiher, Tumwater’s Alexandra Broome and Rainier’s Komaire Robles all finished top-four in their respective races at Saturday’s 30th rendition of the John Payne Invite held at University Place.
Broome took second in the girls silver division with a season-best time of 19 minutes, 30.10 seconds. In the same race, Robles also ran a season-best 19:52.10 to take fourth. Three runners each from W.F. West and Centralia crossed the finish line in the top-50.
Azami Eckerson was 13th, Joy Cushman ran yet another PR to take 16th and Kate Turner placed 36th for the Bearcats. Liesl Stout continued to be the Tigers top runner with a 22nd place performance and a new personal best to boot. They also saw Eva Stout place 41st and Esther Hopkins finish 49th.
In the gold division, the highest area finisher was Toledo’s Braelyn Nyberg in 141st.
Weiher paced the boys side by taking fourth in the bronze division and shattering his previous PR by 19 seconds. Tenino’s Weston Frank had the race of his life with a new PR of 17:52.70, by well over a minute, to place 12th. Rochester’s Kian Christiansen registered an 18th place finish in just over 18 minutes.
Rainier’s Shane Parker (18:40) and Napavine’s Landon Engelbertson (19:08) both ran new personal bests.
In the silver division, Tumwater’s scoring five all were in the top-100 to place fourth in the team race with 257 points, far and away the best Class 2A team in the field. Tyler Clark ran the 5,000-meter course in 16:44.90 to lead the T-Birds while Landon Martin and James Smith each were in the top-50.
W.F. West’s Connor Clary grabbed a 41st place finish with a 27-second PR.
