When the Roman poet Juvenal said, “No one so rejoices in revenge as a woman,” he could have been thinking of the South Whidbey girls cross country team.
On Saturday, the Lady Falcons edged Archbishop Murphy by 1 minute and three seconds at District 1 championships, good for fourth place and a trip to state finals in Pasco Nov. 3.
The night before, ATM had trounced the school’s football team and the girls were happy with their collective rebuttal.
On top of that, on Monday they were named state academic champs based on their 3.912 combined grade point average.
Smart and fast, a winning combination — they must read Juvenal on the bus going to meets.
Eleven 2A schools — fielding 79 girls and 91 boys — gathered at Waterman Field to determine the best and the fastest. South Whidbey will join teams from Sehome, Bellingham and Cedarcrest in the Tri-Cities.
“The girls qualified for state for the second consecutive year, the 17th year out of the last 18,” Falcon coach Doug Fulton said.
“We ran a bit flat but we’ll rebound and have a great run next weekend. To qualify while having an off day in the most competitive district in state is a testament to the character of this team.”
South Whidbey is ranked fourth in the state.
Caroline Habel finished at 16th in 20 minutes, 22 seconds followed by Cassie Bosman (20:34), Erica Johnson (20:35), Chantal White (21:09), Courtney Bosman (21:22), Emily Martin (21:26) and Jean Koelblinger (21:44).
“We’re ready to go,” Johnson said after the race. “I think the other teams may have been a bit more prepared than we were but our workouts have been great.”
She added the course was muddy in spots but otherwise in excellent condition.
In fact, tensions were high as results weren’t posted for several minutes, longer than normal. Apparently ATM’s coach had raised some questions on two Falcon times but all was resolved in the end.
“I’m relieved and very happy,” Habel said.
Fulton said the Falcons boys had an outside chance even in the most competitive district in the state.
“They ran well but fell short,” he said.
Blake Koszarek ran a great race, finishing at 17:40 — top freshman on the day.
“We have a young team which will get better as they continue to train and mature,” Fulton said. Overall, the boys placed eighth with an average time of 18:06.
Scott Stallman was second for South Whidbey at 17:57, followed by Dean Freundlich (18:11), Trevor martin (18:20), Nick Rovang (18:22), Ben Saari (18:36) and Nathan Kamps (18:41).
The girls will head to Pasco on Thursday afternoon, preview the course at Sun Willows Golf Course on Friday morning and race at 11 a.m. Saturday.
