Yakima, WA—Oct. 5—The Sunfair High School Cross Country meet is not for the faint of heart. With an excess of 2,500 runners taking part reprenting schools from three states and two provinces each of them contesting one of the more than a dozen races offered on the day long schedule, the mere size and quality of the meet can be overwhelming for many young contestants.
But 15 year old Kate Sokolowski shook off the nerves of running in her first major cross country meet and battled her way to a gold medal in the Junior Varsity women’s 3-mile run. Sokolowski, who represents Chilliwack’s GW Graham Middle School and the Valley Royals track club, took the lead early in the contest and used her diminutive build to good advantage by gaining ground on the upward portion on each of the six steep hills that consume a large portion of the challenging Sunfair course.
Sokolowski completed her run in a time of 19:25 to place well in front of Idaho’s Hanna Orton who finished second and the other 72 girls that took part in this event. After the race Sokolowski was beaming as she put in a call to her parents to let them know the good news.
WJ Mouat runners Sarya Ross and Callum Pilgrim both had quality performances at the meet. Pilgrim finished second in the Varsity 5 race (19:13) while Ross came up with one of her very best cross country runs ever to take 7th (18:59) in the tough Varsity 6 competition.
Even though Pilgrim, an all round athlete who splits her time between a number of team sports and running, came on strong in the finishing sprint of her race to just squeeze into second. Although she was not all that pleased with her run competitor that she is, Pilgrim resolved to be in better form at coming meets.
Ross, however, was happy that this cross country season is going much better then last year when growing pains hindered her performances. It was her fastest ever time and on the Sunfair course and she was confident that even better things are to come later this season when the championship high school races get underway
Other notable performances by Valley Royal and Mouat athletes runners included Peter Mitchell’s 19th place (16:54) finish in Varsity Flight five boys’ race and Aidan Bingert who came 18th (17:25) in the Varsity Flight 3 run.
Full results can be found at: http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=78610#26174