Washington State Meet

Janke Healthy Just In Time To Help Lift North Central To 3A Title

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Allie Janke likes the routine of a carefully mapped out day, a workout she can count on, a weekly mileage total that is meticulously accounted for. 

So for the North Central junior, the past couple of months have gone haywire. 

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Janke has been dealing with an SI Joint Pain injury since the summer and it forced her to abandon her routine and find other ways to maintain fitness while her teammates waited for her to come back. 

On Saturday, Janke blitzed the Sun Willows Golf Course and won the the Washington Class 3A title for the second year in a row and led the Indians to an impressive 20-point team total that suddenly makes North Central a contender to Summit OR at the NXR Regional this coming Saturday.

"It's hard to believe, quite honestly," Janke said of Saturday's roaring success. She covered the 5K course in 17:26.8 and North Central went 1-2-3 with Erinn Hill and Amelu Ruff behind her. "I was questioning it after regionals (her first race back). A month ago, I was in a pool and I was hurting."

Janke began doing regular workouts only a week before she won the GSL + MCC 3A/4A District Championships on Nov. 2. She had only been jogging two weeks prior to that.

"I still feel little nicks, I'm not 100 percent," Janke said. "But the state race taught me that even when I'm not 100 percent I can get through it and my body can tolerate it. I'm still confident in the upcoming weekend."

The entire team was clicking on all cylinders Saturday. The score of 20 was one better than last year and a new Class 3A record low. It was the team's third straight state title.

"It was super-exciting. We were all really happy," Janke said. "To see me and Mia (Hill) both running healthy, and it was a big breakthrough for Amelu, so to all perform at this level, it shows that we do have it in us."

In the 3A boys race, Kamiakin got another signature win with 34 points. The Braves put six in the top 20 and were led by overall winner Isaac Teeples, a sophomore who ran 15:18.1 for the individual victory. 

Kamiakin, who won the state title for the third year in a row, will go into the NXR Northwest regional as the boys team favorite.

In Class 4A, the Camas boys scored 53 points and the Papermakers won their first state cross country championship. Sophomore Evan Jenkins and junior Sam Geiger placed fourth and sixth to help the team beat Tahoma (97), Lewis and Clark (123) and Central Valley (126). 

One of the big surprises came at the front of the 4A boys race, where Eisenhower's Jonas Price pressed to the lead early but then was unable to respond to Wil Smith's surge with a mile to go and faded to eighth. 

"I just think I wasn't used to running against competition," Price said on Sunday. "I was always running for records this season. When Wil Smith made that move, I was not used to it."

Price, ranked in the DyeStat Top 10 most of the season, had lost the 2018 race to Joe Waskom by less than a second. 

"I still have a lot left in me," he said. 

Smith, of Lewis and Clark, made the winning move from a mile out and kept up a blistering pace that took him to the finish line in 15:03.3. He was six seconds ahead of second-place finisher Jacob Easton of University (15:09.9). 

Issaquah's Julia David Smith dominated the girls 4A race, posting a winning time of 17:26.2 that was slightly faster than Janke's. She won by nearly a minute.

Redmond won its first state championship with 86 points, while Camas finished second with 107. Lilli Hargreaves and Chloe Connolly finished ninth and 10th to lead the Mustangs.

In one of the closest races of the day, Eliason Kabasenche from Pullman held off Selah's Shea Mattson as the seniors went down to the wire for 1-2 in the 2A boys race. Kabasenche clocked 15:23.6 and Mattson was timed in 15:24.2.

Leah Holmgren of Ellensburg led her team to the state championship with her individual victory in 18:16.4. Ellensburg put two in the top four and three in the top 16 on the way to the title.

In Class 1A, Alaina Stone of Colville improved her time on the state meet course by 47 seconds and bumped up from second in 2018 to state champion. The Deer Park girls, who didn't even qualify for state in 2018, won their first team title with 98 points. 

Lakeside's boys got big contributions from their 4 and 5 to retain the boys team title with 92 points. 

Senior Adam Briejer from Charles Wright Academy won the 1A boys race for the second year in a row. 

Daniel Quintana, a sophomore from Ilwaco, won the small-school 1B/2B race in 15:55.8. NW Christian (Lacey) put three in the top nine on the way to a team championship with 70 points. 

Another sophomore, Gabby Martin from Life Christian Academy, ran 17:57.5 and won the girls race by a whopping 87 seconds. Martin was 80 seconds faster on the state course than 2018. Pope John Paul 2 scored 96 points to claim the team title. 

Team Champions - 

Class 4A - Camas boys 53 points, Redmond girls 86 points - RESULTS

Class 3A - Kamiakin boys 34 points, North Central 20 points - RESULTS

Class 2A - Sehome boys 89 points, Ellensburg girls 83 points - RESULTS

Class 1A - Lakeside (Nine Mile) boys 92 points, Deer Park girls 98 points - RESULTS

Class 1B/2B - NW Christian (Lacey) boys 70 points, Pope John Paul 2 girls 96 points - RESULTS