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GOING ALL OUT -- Valerie Vogt of Columbia High is off and running last Saturday in her first WIAA Cross Country Championship race, held at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. Vogt, a junior from Trout Lake, was the only CHS runner in the field. She finished 37th in a time of 20 minutes, 40 seconds.
Columbia High's boys may have come in second to last out of 16 teams at Saturday's WIAA 1A State Championship Meet, but they're not looking at it that way.
"We were pretty pumped about being the 15th best team in the state," said Bruins Coach Jill Cole. "We knew we weren't going to be in the top ten."
Cole said that the team went into the meet with the goal of beating at least one or two other teams. White Salmon accomplished this goal by beating Zillah, 326 to 350.
Junior Brad Rich was the top runner for Columbia; he finished in 11th place with a time of 16 minutes, 38 seconds, which was exactly one minute faster than his 2010 time. The placing was enough for Rich to earn himself a medal. Cole said having him up on the medalists' podium after the race was "a big deal" for both her and Rich.
Other runners included Corey Rich (75th, 17:55), Hayden Gibson (90th, 18:10), Nathan DeVaney (132nd, 19:38), James Miller (136th, 19:47), Jacob Taylor, (139th, 20:09) and Seth Anderson (143rd, 20:48).
"Overall the boys team ran extremely well," said Cole. "Most of our boys broke personal records during the race."
Cole explained that the gently rolling hills of the meet site at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco and the sunny weather made for prime race conditions. Even though the temperature was 30 degrees in the morning and the races had to be delayed due to frost, Cole said that the cooler weather was perfect for the runners who would soon be working up a sweat.
Valerie Vogt was the only girl runner for Columbia in the race, but wasn't the only one in attendance at the meet. Sarah Gibson, who did not qualify for the state meet, accompanied the team to Pasco and even warmed up with Vogt before the race.
Vogt wound up getting 37th, which was not enough for a medal, but ran close to her personal record, with a time of 20:40. Cole said that Vogt -- a junior from Trout Lake who just completed her first-ever cross-country season -- was able to stay close to the front of the race for its entirety.
"She had a great race," recalled Cole. "She just got in there and competed really hard."
With the exception of Brad Rich, no other Bruins runner who competed that day had been to a state meet before, but that didn't affect the athletes very much.
"There were a few more nerves rolling around on the starting line," said Cole. "But we remained focused and ran hard."
Both the Bruins and their coach are already looking forward to next year. All the athletes that competed in the state meet were either sophomores or juniors and Cole said that every single one of the students have expressed interest in competing again next fall. She also stated that just as it did this year, the intensity of training will increase next year as the team becomes stronger and is able to compete at an even higher level.
