PORTLAND — Mark Tedder’s response when asked how he was feeling after running in the Jim Danner Championship boys race at the Nike Pre-National cross country meet said it all.
“I’m fine,” the Battle Ground senior said. “Well, actually, I’m not right now, but I will be.”
Tedder left it all on the course at Portland Meadows on Saturday. And for 4,900 meters, he couldn’t have imagined a better race.
But a late fade left him with a fourth-place finish in a field of elite runners in a time of 15 minutes, 30 seconds.
“My legs kind of gave out at the end, and I let a couple of guys pass me,” Tedder said. “That never feels good. But I went out today to run with these guys and see what I stand, and I feel like I did pretty well.”
Tedder went out with the lead pack from the start and stayed in the top four all the way through the 5,000-meter course.
In the final 400 meters, Gig Harbor’s Wolfgang Beck pulled away to win in 15:16. With 100 meters to go, Tedder found himself in second. But he couldn’t keep up with runner-up Elijah Armstrong of Pocatello, Idaho, and was edged out by Jackson Darland from Sheldon of Eugene, Ore., at the finish.
“A lot of these guys here today are the same guys I’m going to see at state,” Tedder said. “So I wanted to use this race as a test to see where I stand with them. … I feel pretty good about where I’m at and what I need to do to improve as the season goes on.”
Tedder was one of four Clark County runners to place in the top 21 of the Danner boys race. Washougal’s Isaac Stinchfield was 15th (15:56) and Skyview’s Colby Gilbert was 17th (15:58). Also Washougal’s Sean Eustis was 22nd (16:05).
There were two local finishers in the top 20 of the Danner girls race — Union’s Alexis Fuller (18th, 18:47) and Camas’ Nicole Goecke (19th, 18:54). In other races, Union freshman Cassie McKinney won the girls Division I race in 18:56.
Camas shines at Stanford — Camas sophomore Alexa Efraimson placed second in the girls seeded race at the Stanford Invitational, finishing the 5,000-meter course in 17:04. Amy-Eloise Neal of Snohomish’s Glacier Peak High School won the race in 16:52.
Sophomore Alissa Pudlitzke placed 13th overall (18:36) and freshman Maddie Woodson was 33rd (19:07) as the Papermakers placed fourth among 19 elite teams from the western United States. Glacier Peak placed eighth. Led by Andrew Duffy (39th, 16:14) and Tucker Boyd (46th, 16:19), the Camas boys placed 16th out of 32 teams in the seeded boys race.
Mountain View tandem wins — Trevor Jones and Colton Reed swept to a 6-1, 6-4 win over Chad Wooten and Nathan Staley of Olympia to win the doubles championship at the Thunder Invitational tennis tournament at Club Green Meadows. Olympia took home the team title with 65 points to beat out Columbia River (40) and Mountain View (35). River’s Dominik Gorecki place third in singles.
