North Central wins 10th in a row

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

PASCO, Wash. -- Good guys keep finishing first in the Washington state meet. 

North Central one-upped the legendary Mead dynasty of the 1990s by winning the Class 3A boys championship for the 10th straight year. Senior Justin Janke stepped into the role vacated by Tanner Anderson the past two years and ably led the team to another victory. 

Coach Jon Knight said he was proud of his team and proud of his school's commmunity, which gathered en massed to see history made at Sun Willows Golf Course. But Knight, soft-spoken, humble as ever, said his program's success is shared with others. 

Knight credited the strong branches on Spokane's coaching trees -- Tracy Walters and Pat Tyson  among them -- and said: "We've just inherited that legacy and done our best to carry it on the best we could."

North Central wears a team T-shirt with an interesting logo on the front and difficult-to-decipher codes on the back. On the front is a winged marmot. The team doesn't particularly care for the school's Indians mascot and would prefer to retire it. On the back of the shirt is a K, which stands for "Kindness" next to the symbol for infinity. 

North Central is the team that strives -- from a low socio-economic section of a blue collar city -- to be Kind. And Strong. And Committed to community service. 

The team had challenges this year. Not only has it graduated an NXN individual champion the past two springs, but two key runners on this fall's team -- including Coach Knight's son, Hank -- suffered stress fractures. 

Still, Janke and his teammates were not about to yield. 

"I definitely think there were a few guys who were stressed out to start this thing," said Janke, who ran 15:02. "The good news is that we knew who we had to go out and race. We saw a lot of them at regionals."

North Central scored 75 points. Kamiakin edged Arlington for second place. 

In Class 4A, the Tahoma boys put its recent state meet disappointments to rest and delivered a fine performance that brought the school its first state championship. Tahoma scored 79 points. (Tahoma averaged 15:48.4 per scorer; North Central averaged 15:48.5). 

Jack Yearian, who spent the early part of the season recovering from knee pain and then a lack of fitness, got back into tip-top shape in time to win the Class 4A boys race in 15:14.9. 

Camas won its fourth Class 4A girls title in five years and put three in the top 13 on the way to 79 points. The Papermakers have their eyes set on a possible return trip to NXN. Freshman Taylor Roe of Kamiak won the 4A individual crown with 17:56.1.

Jordan Oakes of Holy Names covered the course fastest among the girls, taking the Class 3A race in 17:53.5. Glacier Peak squeaked past Edmonds-Woodway 112 to 113 to win the team title. 

At Class 2A, Dylan Holland of Anacortes had purple hair dye running down his neck by the end of his winning run. He had a moment of drama when Sehome's Colten Johnson came up on him in the final 15 meters and he had to lunge for a win that he was coasting to. Sehome went 2-3 and scored 55 for the team win. Brittany Aquino of Central Valley won the 2A girls race; Liberty (Issaquah) got the team win. 

Tibebu Proctor of Northwest School won the Class 1A title and newcomer Kenneth Rooks, a sophomore from College Place, won the 1B/2B race. 

Alexis Redfield ran 36 seconds faster than she did to win the girls 1A title in 2014 in order to do it again. Erin Mullins from Cascade (Leavenworth) pushed her the whole way. Northwest edged Redfield's Zillah team for the championship.  Teammates Madison Ward and Marika Morelan of St. George's, who are coached by Spokane legend Rick Riley, went 1-2 in the small-school race.