The Hudson’s Bay Run-A-Ree usually signifies the start of the cross country season for all of the teams in the area.
But no team appears to have higher expectations than the Skyview boys.
Last Friday at Hudson’s Bay, Skyview finished with four runners in the top eight and five of the top 17 finishers.
They also did so without one of their top runners from last year, sophomore Chanse Gilbert.
But they did have last year’s Class 4A district champion Kaden Harbertson, who led the way for Skyview. Harbertson finished second overall. Mark Morris’ Aaron Brumbaugh finished first while 3A GSHL district champ Austin Blakenship from Columbia River finished third.
“I’d say he’s a very confident runner,” said Skyview head coach Chris Erdman about his team’s captain. “He’s really motivated by competition. At the same time he’s an outstanding leader and he’s very coachable.”
“I think today we just wanted to go out and look good for the first meet,” Skyview junior Mason Scheidel said. “We’ve been practicing really hard and stuff so we’re just waiting for it to pay off. We’ve got some young talent here.”
The young talent at Run-A-Ree was sophomore runner Zeke Oien, who also plays soccer and came out for cross country for the first time this year, finishing sixth.
After winning the district championship last season, the Skyview boys have loftier goals of perhaps winning state altogether.
But their head coach Chris Erdman is a little bit more conservative about his team’s chances of winning the 4A state title.
“That would be very impressive,” Erdman said. “The state of Washington last year and this year is one of the stronger states in the nation for cross country. Gig Harbor, one of our competitors, won the national championship last year and they are very strong this year. That’s just one of many strong teams at the 4A level.”
With a great showing at Run-A-Ree, they’ve set the tone for what could be a special season.
“Skyview has never placed above 10 in state so that’s definitely a goal,” Erdman said.
But Erdman says he sees the toughest part being keeping the team mentally focused and also that everyone stay healthy.
One team that wasn’t at Run-A-Ree that Skyview will be competing against in the district is Camas. Camas lost a couple of seniors from last season as well as losing runners who left to play other sports. The Papermakers anticipate having a few freshman step into big roles on the varsity.
“Our team is pretty good. Shocking because we graduated a lot of people and a lot of other people didn’t come out so this is a building phase for us,” senior Taryk Boyd said.
But they are still hopeful that they can make a splash in the state this year.
“Our ultimate goal is state. We’re trying to go for our eight year straight to try and make it to state so it will be interesting because we have all those young guys who aren’t experienced,” Boyd said.
“There’s definitely a lot of potential in this group,” junior Dustin Zimmerly said.
The 4A GHSL looks like it’s Skyview’s to lose, but Camas and the rest of the area schools still have a long season before things are said and done.
