Mount Si’s cross country teams had a difficult SeaKing District meet last Thursday, Oct. 30, in Seattle. Only one Wildcat runner, top Wildcat girls’ competitor Alex Rudd, made it to state, as Mount Si faced the best in both the Metro and Kingco leagues.

Rudd finished 14th overall with a time of 19:59 to qualify for this weekend’s state meet in the Tri-Cities. Mount Si as a team finished ninth and failed to make state as a group. Athletes whose teams didn’t make it in had to finish in the top 20; the 20th place time was 20:17. Kendall Maddux (31st, 20:46, 0:29 back of 20th place cutoff) finished second among Wildcat ladies, and Megan Past (52nd, 21:41) was third. Katie Rylands, Jesserah Helm, Sally Miller and Dannah Parsons also all competed for Mount Si in the varsity meet; all four finished further back in the pack.

On the boys’ side, Max McDevitt (t-30th, 17:08, 0:10 behind 25th place time of 16:58) and Zac Pearlstein (35th, 17:15, 0:17 behind 25th place) both narrowly missed making state. Runners in the boys’ event whose teams didn’t make state needed to finish in the top 25.

Mount Si runners dominated in an open meet held for junior varsity entrants after the varsity races. Michael Blackmon (18:09) and Wendy Hecker (23:32) won the boys’ and girls’ open races for the Wildcats.

The state meet is Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. Rudd will be looking to improve on a 21st place finish in the 2007 meet. The course looks to be relatively flat, and the weather conditions should not be too bad, so look for Rudd to once again have a solid race.