Kailey Ulland was down to her final opportunity of the cross country season this past Saturday during the Class 4A state meet at Pasco’s Sun Willows Golf Course.
That final opportunity didn’t only have to do with the close of the season, but also surpassing Kent-Meridian star Alexia Martin, who had gotten the better of Ulland at both the sub-district and district meets in recent weeks.
On Saturday, however, Ulland rose to the occasion – barely – nipping Martin by two seconds en route to bringing home an eighth-place medal.
“I had one more chance and I didn’t want to miss it,” Ulland said. “Alexia pushes me to do better.”
Ulland broke the tape on the 3.1-mile course in 18:52, just two seconds ahead of ninth-place Martin, who clocked in at 18:54.
It was a good race, Martin conceded.
“She has been trying to beat me for a while,” Martin said. “We always are kind to each other, so it’s no big deal (that she beat me). I just didn’t realize how fast the course was. I started to get too relaxed. You’re supposed to really start sprinting in the final 600 meters, By the time I realized that, Kailey was already in front of me.
“She beat me by a hair.”
Ulland established a new personal record with the run, beating her old record by 18 seconds.
“That’s a bit ridiculous,” Ulland laughed. “I think it was just the excitement of the race.”
Kentwood coach Ken Paul was thrilled by the performance of his standout junior.
“She looked competitive the whole way through,” Paul said. “She looked like she had fire in the belly. She ran competitively and with confidence.”
The top 16 individuals earned medals while the top four teams brought home trophies. Ulland and Martin were the lone local females to bring home medals. Garfield’s Anna Dailey won the girls race with a time of 17:58. Ulland and Martin finished just behind Natasha Verma of Stanwood, who clocked in at 18:51.
In the boys race, Kent-Meridian finished higher than any other local team, bringing home 16th place with 359 points. As they have all season long, the Royals were paced by DJ Jigre and Derrick Daigre, who finished in 50th and 68th place respectively. Jigre broke the tape in 16:22 while Daigre wasn’t too far behind at 16:40. Matt Bailey was the next highest K-M finisher (97th/17:01) followed by Nick Lemmon (136th/17:50); Andrew Smith (137th/17:57), Jordan Roberts (138th/18:01) and Dario Acevedo (143rd/18:16).
Kent-Meridian, which won the South Puget Sound League North Division title, had designs of finishing among the top 10. Despite not quite reaching that goal, the season was a wild success, coach Ernie Ammons said.
“It started from the get go,” Ammons said. “We put the plan in motion and they came together as a team. There was never a point where it was about individual results, it was about them striving together to be as good as they could be as a team.
“It all started with that win over Tahoma.”
Meanwhile, Kentridge’s Alex Horton and Kentwood’s Danny Lunder also ran in the state race. Horton finished in 81st place with a time of 16:48 followed closely by Lunder, who took 84th place with a time of 16:50.
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