In what became somewhat of a Kingco Preview meet — where almost every school in our conference raced on the same course over a two day stretch — Issaquah reigned supreme in the first 5K race of the season. Up against Redmond, North Creek, Bothell, Woodinville, Mt Si, and Newport — Issaquah won 3 of the 4 contested races and notched 3 individual wins.

First race of the day was the varsity girls, led by senior Kate Yahn (18:21.79) who won the race over Bothell’s Lauren Hoyt. This was a near-best effort for Kate, which came at last year’s PNW Showcase in late-November — nearly PRing in September bodes well for what’s to come! Juniors Jane Harig (3rd, 19:34.53) and Clara Tubbs (6th, 20:08.16) came across next, while seniors Anna Jensen (11th, 21:06.97) and Julia Ryan (13th, 21:13.91) rounded out our scoring top 5. These incredible efforts from our girl’s team was enough to secure the overall team victory over Redmond 34-35, and securing the league meet victory over Woodinville and North Creek.

Next up were our varsity boys, led by senior Ben Konopka (16:06.46) who also won the race for Issaquah, finishing with junior teammate Brennen Rickey (2nd, 16:08.36) and ahead Redmond’s Zachary Leader. Not only is this Ben’s second individual cross country win (first dating back to October 15th, 2019), but it is also a 30-second PR from last fall AND the fastest 5Km time in 4A state rankings thus far — a testament to the hard work he and his teammates have put in over the summer! Rounding out our scoring 5 were sophomores Connor Rickey (4th, 16:28.95), Elliot McIntosh (5th, 16:36.58, PR), and Henry Tait (11th, 17:08.49, PR). This totaled to 23-53 over Redmond, sealing a dominate league performance in our first full-distance race of the season.

Onto our JV girls, who also raced incredibly well, led by junior Giada Oliva (2nd, 21:22.98), senior Ellie Roberts (4th, 22:00.59), freshman Amelia Ryan (8th, 22:47.34, PR), sophomore Ava Gonzalez (9th, 23:12.01, PR), and junior Mackenzie Bice (10th, 23:16.42). These tenacious ladies finished 2nd to Redmond’s squad 26-33, and we are so excited to see the continued development of this incredible group.

The evening of races concluded with our JV boys, whose performance can only be described as a “wall of yellow” — as the eagles secured 6 of the top 7 spots to secure a perfect score of 15 over Redmond’s 75 point effort. Senior Ty Lauritzen finished first (17:28.25) followed by sophomore Alex Yahn (17:29.55, PR), senior Hayden Stowe (17:41.36), junior Elle Miller (17:49.32, PR), and sophomore Ben Lucas (17:50.88, PR) to round out the scoring 5. This was an awesome effort by these athletes to set us up well for the future!

Full results from the meet are here. Photos by Ken Fischer are linked here.

Next week begins the next phase of our season, where we have invitationals each Saturday for 3 weekends. Issaquah will host Skyline September 21st at Yellow Lake (girls first at 4:30), and then we will split the team on Saturday the 24th, with a group attending Nike Portland XC at Blue Lake Regional Park (Championship races at 11:15am) and a group racing at Kings Cross Invite, hosted by Kings HS (races begin at 1pm).

Fly Eagles, Fly!