Cross country is not a sport most people think of when looking for great stories about teamwork. After last Saturday, they should think again.

Pulling together in different ways, the South Whidbey boys and girls won bi-district championships in Chehalis, earning trips to the state meet as possible title favorites, and earning the respect of perhaps every runner at the Newaukum Valley Golf Course Saturday.

For the Falcons boys, a championship was a forgone conclusion going into the meet; for the girls, runner-up status seemed to be the best hope. How the races really turned out was a surprise for both.

After handily winning the North Cascades Conference meet the week earlier, South Whidbey’s top boys runner, senior James Sundquist, was at the bi-district meet for more of the same. The meet was a rerun of the one the week before, with all the same teams competing for a spot at the state meet. As expected, Sundquist led through the first mile, followed closely by sophomore teammate JD Peters, Neil Hollo of Granite Falls and Tyler Rapp of Lakewood. On a flat, fast golf course run, the result seemed predestined — Sundquist would win and the other three would fight for second place.

But when Sundquist lost both his contact lenses less than halfway into the race, predestiny went out the window. Though he had memorized the course beforehand, Sundquist was suddenly running — and leading the race — partly blind.

Slowed somewhat by the handicap, Sundquist remained with the lead group instead of pulling away, as he had done the week before. As it turns out, his taking it easy was good for both him and Peters. Paced by the leaders into his best race ever, Peters stayed with the group and, at one point, acted as Sundquist’s eyes, verbally steering the race leader through a tight turn with less than a half mile to go.

At the finish, it was Sundquist who took the win, pulling away from his three competitors to win the 3.1-mile race in 16 minutes, 29 seconds. Behind him, Granite Falls Hollo surged to second, just nipping Peters, who took third with his best time ever, 17:35.

After the race, the winner couldn’t have been happier with the way it turned out.

“It definitely felt more like a team run,” Sundquist said.

Behind the Falcons’ leaders, the team’s other seven runners had career days. Running third for the Falcons, junior Holton Schmitt was fifth overall in 17:00. Following him, senior Jeff Strong — in the midst of a late-season resurgence — took his best varsity placing of the year, running fourth for South Whidbey and taking 11th place. Rounding out the scoring was sophomore Chris dePender, who registered a personal-best time of 17:37 on his way to 15th place.

In the girls race, team tactics again paid off for South Whidbey. After losing the conference title to Mount Baker the week before, the girls concentrated on staying ahead of every Mountaineer they could see. With Baker’s top runner and NCC champion Andrea Brown back in the pack hovering between 15th and ninth due to an injury, the job of winning was all the easier for the Falcons.

Leading the team was sophomore Mary Bakeman, who ran a personal best 19:34 to take second 24 seconds behind Mount Baker’s Karin Rohde. Bakeman ran with the lead pack Rhode, Woodland’s Tara Ward and Hoquiam’s Tess Grannemann through the mile mark, then pulled away from Ward, who was the state 2A runner-up in 2002. Also clogging the top 15 for the Falcons were senior Callie Supsinkas in fifth, junior Nancy Godsey in 10th and freshman Katy Gordon, who ran a personal best of 20:44 to place 14th. The final scoring runner for the team was Becky Gabelein, who lopped 39 seconds off her time from the previous week to place 29th.

Supsinskas’ finish made the difference for South Whidbey, which edged Mount Baker by just two points. She edged Moutaineer Baily Wilson at the finish line, swinging points in favor of her team.

Godsey, who won her own line sprint against a Meridian runner, said she and her teammates were ready to be winners in Chehalis.

“We were all mentally prepared,” she said.

With the victories, the Falcon boys and girls go into Saturday’s state meet at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco as marked runners. Qualifying for the meet for the 14th year in a row and coming off their second straight district title and a runner-up placing at Pasco last year, the second-ranked girls will be challenging top-ranked East Valley-Yakima, as well as Mount Baker, for the team title.

The boys go with a pedigree that is almost as solid. Running at Sun Willows for the fifth consecutive year and with their second district title in two years on the shelf, they are back to make up for a disappointing ninth-place finish in 2002. They go into the race ranked second among 2A teams, behind Chelan.