As one of the great historical invitationals in the northwest, Sunfair continues to be an athlete-favorite that challenges our runners to be the best version of themselves. Our team rose to said challenge, recording multiple individual wins, 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. Whitney Neville (3^rd, 14:36, 2 mi PR) and Caprice Oliva (4^th, 14:59, 2 mi PR) led the way. Our frosh boys recorded our first win of the day, where Sebastian Sengamalay (1^st, 11:47) and Arya Bhat (5^th, 12:04, 2 mi PR) led the way, followed by Rex Garner (7^th, 12:13, 2 mi PR), Lincoln Young (9^th, 12:14, 2 mi PR), and Thomas Ryan (12^th, 12:32, 2 mi PR) to round out our scoring 5. The freshman boy’s crew scored 25 points over West Valley’s 45 points. Awesome showing by our newcomers!

Junior varsity girls were up next, who were led by senior Clara Tubbs (1^st, 21:05), senior Ilora Farren (3^rd, 21:58), sophomore Sailor Storey (4^th, 21:59, 3 mi PR), senior Giada Oliva (5^th, 22:17), and senior Mackenzie Bice (6^th, 23:01, 3 mi PR). The girls ended up scoring 15 points for first place over Richland (79 points). With the junior varsity boys, sophomore Nathaniel Laursen (1^st, 17:23, 3 mi PR) led the way, followed by sophomore Nicolas Talluto (2^nd, 18:03, 3 mi PR), junior Matthew Fischer (3^rd, 18:05), junior Ishaan Agarwal(5^th, 18:13), and senior Ilyaas Motiwalla (6^th, 18:22) rounding out the scoring 5. In the team competition, the boys finished first over West Valley 17 to 110. 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 junior Georgia Short(21:45), who was the second place #7 to cross the line. Freshman Lauren Tehero (20:53, 3 mi PR) had an amazing showing representing us as our #6 runner, finishing second place in the standings. Sophomore Clara Michael (20:41, 3 mi PR) finished second in the races against #5s, and junior Elena Gehrke (19:47, 3 mi PR) finished second against the #4s. Freshman Sally Davis (19:31, 3 mi PR) and junior Sena Pittman(19:23, 3 mi PR) both finished first against #3s and #2s, respectively, and senior Jane Harig (19:18, 3 mi PR), who raced alone against all other team’s #1 runners, finished second and ran the second fastest time of the day. The performances by these ladies were enough for them to finish second as a team, totaling 12 points, finishing behind 3^rd-ranked West Valley Yakima with 9 points. 

Our boys’ varsity also raced in the flighted format, where senior Oscar Ruiz (17:30, 3 mi PR) and junior Ben Lucas (17:30, 3 mi PR) both finished first against #7s and #6s, respectively. Junior Robert Fischer (17:01, 3 mi PR) finished first amongst #5s, and junior Henry Tait (16:14, 3 mi PR) finished first against #4s. Junior Alex Yahn (16:11, 3 mi PR) was first for the #3s, and senior Brennen Rickey (15:47, 3 mi PR) finished first against #2s. Connor Rickey, racing as our #1 runner, finished first overall with a time of 15:45 (3 mi PR), which was the fastest time of the day and over a 30 second improvement on Sunfair’s course from last year. The boys’ team finished first, winning every single flight and coming up with a perfect score of 7 points over West Valley Yakima’s 16 points. When combined, our varsity programs scored a total of 19 points, which brought us home the combined team championship.

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 7th. This invite is one of the largest meets in the country, where over 5000 athletes will be racing throughout the day. Frosh/Soph boys will be our first race of the day at 9AM. 

Fly Eagles, Fly!