On a Mission

Portland’s Jesuit equals record; wins five of seven flights ||

YAKIMA, Wash. — Annamarie Maag looked across Franklin Park at its infamous terraces and could smile now, intimidated no longer.

“That hill,” she said of her first encounter, “definitely looked impossible.”

Indeed it was impossible — for anyone to stay with the Jesuit junior after she crested the formidable rise in Saturday’s 36th annual Sunfair Invitational cross country meet.

Launching a breakaway at the mile mark, which resides at the top of that landmark hill, Maag raced unchallenged to the finish in the girls elite flight, which featured eight state champions and two former Sunfair champs.

Annamarie Maag of Portland’s Jesuit High School takes a commanding lead in the elite girls flight at the Sunfair Invitational on Saturday at Franklin Park. (Andy Sawyer/Yakima Herald-Republic)

“My coaches said that would be a good place to push it, at the top of the hill when everybody would be trying to catch their breath,” Maag said, barely winded from the effort. “I felt real good then so it was a good time to press the pace a little.”

It wasn’t so much pressing the pace as sustaining it.

Maag’s remarkably even mile splits of 5:50, 5:55 and 5:53 on the undulating three-mile course produced an overall time of 17 minutes, 39 seconds, which ranks seventh on Sunfair’s all-time list.

While keeping her unbeaten season intact, Maag concluded an expectantly dominant day for the Catholic school from Portland, which has won the last seven 6A state titles in Oregon and currently ranks 11th in the nation.

The Crusaders, making their Sunfair debut, won five of the seven varsity flights and scored 12 points, matching the meet record.

“I had to hold up my end of the deal,” said Maag, who did so with a winning margin of 16 seconds. “Waiting so long for my turn felt like forever, but it was great watching our other girls race. We had a good day.”

In complete control of second place was Kinsey Gomez, a junior from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Matching her runner-up finish from two years ago, when she went on to win the Idaho state title as a freshman, Gomez clocked 17:55 for Sunfair’s 15th sub-18 performance.

“I was just so excited to be in this race,” she said. “I knew it was going to be fast and I wanted to be in there with a chance to break 18 minutes. That’s really good on this course and it means I’m probably in my best shape ever.”

Glacier Peak freshman Amy-Eloise Neale finished third in 18:16, leading her 3A team to second place behind Jesuit. Liz Brandon of Eagle, Idaho, was fourth in 18:20 and defending champion Baylee Mires of Mead was fifth in 18:26.

Eisenhower’s girls, who came in ranked third in the state among 4A schools, had a so-so day while finishing ninth, five spots better than last year. The Cadets did, however, finish 45 points behind conference rival Richland, which placed sixth.

“The entire team seemed a little flat,” noted Ike coach Phil English. “This meet can be a distraction all week as we get ready for it, and sometimes it’s hard to tell how things will go. Today was just a little flat.”

West Valley senior Audrey Urlacher turned in the best local time of the day, clocking 19:09 in the elite flight. She was followed closely in that flight by Wapato’s Sammi Jo Blodgett (19:11) and Eisenhower’s Berenice Penaloza (19:16).

Urlacher was 19 places and 1:34 better than last year.

“She can be tough on herself and I think she was hoping to run faster,” said WV coach Bob Allan. “Any time you run low 19s here, that’s pretty good.”

Allan had another runner in the low 19s as Margret Parobek checked in at 19:18 in the sixth flight.

Kirsten Sheffield (19:51) and Mayra Chavez (19:59) also broke 20 minutes for Eisenhower, and Kaitlin Kaluzny (19:35) led Davis to a 20th-place finish.