To many, Sunfair is a grueling behemoth of a course, but to Issaquah, it is an athlete-favorite that challenges our runners and creates team bonds. Our team rose to said challenge, recording an individual win, multiple team wins, and both varsity squads coming home with hardware and trophies.

Our freshman group started the day with a 2 mile course on the historic Franklin Park. Amelia Ryan (6th, 14:37) and Sailor Storey (9th, 15:30) led the way, along with Jaelyn Jeon (11th, 15:48, 2 mi PR), Rosemary Shimao (12th, 15:49), and Alexandra Clarke (17th, 17:13) also scoring for the Eagles. In the team scores, Issaquah scored 33 to Richland HS’s 39 points to finish first. To the frosh boys, where Nate Laursen (1st, 11:33) and Nicolas Talluto (2nd, 11:37) led the way, followed by Makoto Sasaki (5th, 11:43), Owen Kang (6th, 11:49), and Anay Dhamankar (7th, 11:51) to round out our scoring 5. The freshman boy’s crew scored a perfect 15 points over West Valley’s 64 points. Awesome showing by our newcomers!

Junior varsity girls were up next, who were led by sophomore Amanda George (7th, 22:37, 3 mi PR), junior Mackenzie Bice (13th, 23:24), sophomore Lorelai Beernink (18th, 23:58), junior Faith Dougherty (20th, 24:15), and junior Julianna Cullen (27th, 25:19). The girls ended up scoring 81 points for third place, behind Lincoln HS of Oregon (15 points) and Eagle HS of Idaho (80 points). With the junior varsity boys, senior Ty Lauritzen (3rd, 17:47, 3 mi PR) led the way, followed by senior Hayden Stowe (5th, 17:50, 3 mi PR, junior Elle Miller (8th, 17:57, 3 mi PR), junior Oscar Ruiz (9th, 17:57, 3 mi PR), and sophomore Robert Fischer (13th, 18:08) rounding out the scoring 5. In the team competition, the boys finished second in a close battle with Lincoln 33 to 38. A great showing by our developmental group!

On to our varsity girls, who raced as pairs in flights against their respective standing on the team (for example, numbers 6 and 7 race all other teams 6 and 7, and so on). First up was freshman Clara Michael (22:18, 3 mi PR), who was the second place #7 to cross the line. Senior Ellie Roberts (22:05) had an amazing showing representing us as our #6 runner, finishing fifth place in the standings. Junior Rachel Dennie (26:43) finished seventh in the races against #5s, and junior Giada Oliva (23:17, 3 mi PR) finished eighth against the #4s. Junior Clara Tubbs (20:28, 3 mi PR) and junior Jane Harig (19:43, 3 mi PR) both finished third against #3s and #2s, respectively, and senior Kate Yahn (18:47, 3 mi PR), who raced alone against all other team’s #1 runners, won the overall race and ran the fastest time of the day. The performances by these ladies was enough for them to finish third as a team, totaling 29 points, finishing behind Lincoln HS (9) and Eagle HS (18).

Our boy’s varsity also raced in the flighted format, where sophomores Alex Yahn (17:14, 3 mi PR) and Henry Tait (16:50, 3 mi PR) both finished second against #7s and #6s, respectively. Sophomore Elliot McIntosh (17:15, 3 mi PR) finished third amongst #5s, and senior Jonathan Liu (17:12) finished fifth against #4s. Senior Ben Konopka (16:30, 3 mi PR) was second for the #3s, and sophomore Connor Rickey (16:21, 3 mi PR) finished third against #2s. Brennen Rickey, racing as our #1 runner, finished seventh overall with a time of 16:16, an over 30 second improvement on Sunfair’s course from last year. The boy’s finished third, tying with Lewis and Clark HS for second, but losing on a tie breaker at 24 points. Lincoln HS (7) finished first in the team competition.

Full results are here. Photos by Eisenhower’s Ivan Alfaro are available here. Photos by Ken Fischer are here (will update once available).

Looking ahead, Issaquah travels north to Hole In the Wall, hosted by Lakewood High School of Arlington on October 8th. Frosh/Soph boys will be our first race of the day at 9AM.

Fly Eagles, Fly!