White River High’s cross country showdown with the Sumner Spartans produced a nail-biter in the girls ranks, with the visitors escaping Buckley with a 26-29 victory.

The meet, run on the White River campus, didn’t offer nearly the dramatics on the boys side, where the tough Hornets dashed to a 19-39 win.

The closely-contested girls race featured White River’s Lauryn Wate claiming first-place honors with a time of 19 minutes, 16 seconds. Kelly Coyle was fourth overall with a time of 21:44 and Christina Ramous was fifth at 22:10, followed by Katie Simmons in ninth place, 23:12, and Kalynn Gulin in 10th, 23:23.

The always-tough Hornet boys had the usual twosome of Marcus Dickson and Kody Gould claiming the top spots, Dickson taking first at 15:47 and Gould second at 16:54. Others contributing to the team score were Kyle Smith in fourth place, 17:09, Chris Fisher in fifth, 17:11, and Wes Fueston in seventh, 17:36.

With the regular season in their past, all South Puget Sound League 2A runners will head to Saturday’s subdistrict meet at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood. Advancing to the Oct. 29 district competition will be the top eight teams and top 40 individuals in both the boys and girls competition.

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