Bombers Place Third Despite Last-Minute Changes - By Drew Johnson

    The Richland Bomber Cross Country team pulled into Lawrence Scott Park for the MCC Championships meet on Wednesday. Jace Woodard, Crew Martell, and Jackson Booker continued to lead the boys’ varsity team to a strong third-place finish for the boys, while Tylar Wolff, Abby Duncan, and Lily Robertson led the girls’ varsity team to a second-place finish. Kamiakin continued to dominate as both boys and girls took home the MCC championship.  

Photo courtesy of Jim Qualheim.

    For the first two laps, junior Crew Martell and senior Jace Woodard battled for positions in front of the pack. After the first two laps, Jace Woodard and Crew Martell found themselves in 7th and 9th place, while Jackson Booker trailed not far behind. Richland showed heart throughout each lap, pushing each other to continue. Both Martell and Woodard paced themselves in a smart and efficient way to keep them at a comfortable spot in the lead for their team. Going into the third lap, Crew Martell took the lead for the Bombers in 5th place, while Jace Woodard was in 6th place. On the final lap, in the last home stretch, Crew overtook Kamiakin’s Noah Thomas for 4th place, beating him by twenty-two hundredths of a second with a time of (15.48.81). Woodard followed with a time of (15.53.06) and Booker in 10th place with a time of (16.07.06).

    Ezra Teeples held a strong lead for most of each lap, holding a comfortable lead for Kamiakin, in addition to taking the trophy for leading each lap, while having Hanford senior Eduardo Tobon trailing him from behind going into the third and fourth lap, with attention to both strong runners came to another speedy senior Daniel Franco representing Chiawana coming in not too far behind them on the third lap, But that couldn’t keep Crew Martell too far off from catching up to these three nimble athletes, Martell pushed through each lap not giving up that fourth place spot for the Bombers, despite the effort given from Tobon, Franco, and Martell, Ezra Teeples kept his foot on the gas keeping that first place mentality during each lap securing him the win for Kamiakin with a time of (15.27.08).

Photo courtesy of Jim Qualheim.

    The girls’ varsity team was led by senior Tylar Wolff, first-year Abby Duncan, and Sophomore Lily Robertson. The girls were up against Hanford’s Mia Beightol and Chiawana’s Emma Gis. The race started off looking strong, with our girls at the front of the pack for the first couple of laps. The last two laps were a battle for Robertson and Duncan, as they were neck and neck with Kamiakin’ Sophomore Meredith Stavenger. Duncan continued her pace as she kept her 4th place position and finished with a time of (19.10.10). Robertson and Stavenger went back and forth during the last lap, but Robertson could not beat her to the finish line by four-tenths of a second, finishing in 6th place with a time of (19.10.98).  

    Every part of this team showed great Bomber pride throughout each lap of this meet. Every parent, coach, friend, and fan saw these Bombers prove to everyone what remarkable things they can do together as a team. Every step counts to Richland; as a team and a family, they continue to put in the work to ready themselves for bigger things like regionals. They have taken each practice and meet seriously to give them big momentum to reach their bigger goals as a team, for example taking home the first-place trophy at regionals. Both girls’ and boys’ varsity have represented Richland in pride filled way. The Bombers never fail to bring everything they have and leave it all the line for Richland.  

Photo courtesy of Jim Qualheim.

    The Bombers’ next race is the district 8 Regional Meet at Veteran’s Memorial Golf Course in Walla Walla on Saturday, October 29th. They take on the top leaders in both the MCC and GSL. This year’s top schools in the GSL are Lewis & Clark, Central Valley, and Gonzaga Prep. The Boys have to face off against two of the top 5 runners from last year, Lewis & Clark’s Evan Bruce and Charles Ledwith. The Bomb squad is looking to improve upon their finish last year, where they placed 7th as a team. Senior Jace Woodard said, “There has been a lot of focus on doing well at regionals this year. Every race is just the next step for us to succeed”. The team’s focus this year will hopefully payoff when the time comes to represent the cloud. 

Photo courtesy of Jim Qualheim.