Mount Si’s cross country team closed out their home schedule last Wednesday, Oct. 6, with a sweep of Lake Washington.

Wildcat competitors won both races and Mount Si won the team title for both boys and girls in the dual meet—the boys by a score of 26-31 and girls with a score of 24. Lake Washington did not record a team score in the girls race due to lack of runners; five runners are needed for a team score and the Kangs only raced four girls in the event.

“Today was a perfect day,” said Mount Si assistant coach Art Galloway. Weather conditions were ideal, with temperatures in the low 70’s and sunshine, a far cry from the weather for their first home meet a few weeks ago.

Winning the girls race for the Wildcats was freshman Bailey Scott, who clocked a time of 21:16. For Scott, it was her first varsity high school race win, and she was thrilled.

“I’ve been having hip problems but I felt like I ran really good today,” Scott said. Fellow freshman Abbey Bottemiller took second in her best finish as a high-schooler. She clocked a time of 21:21, five seconds behind Scott. The two of them have paced each other in every race this season, and have together challenged opposing runners, but the lack of competitors in a dual meet makes for a little bigger challenge.

“I think that almost makes it harder, because then you don’t have as many people in front of you to push you,” Bottemiller said. “But Bailey and I, we push each other.”

“I’m really excited,” Galloway said. “I really want to give credit to the middle school cross country programs. We’re getting kids who are so much farther ahead in their running than we’ve had before. They have that experience.”

Mount Si senior Michael Blackmon won the boys race by a comfortable margin over Lake Washington’s Josh Deshazer. Blackmon came in with a time of 18:17, while Deshazer finished nearly 19 seconds back.

“It was a good day to race,” the well-prepared Blackmon said. “I was pretty ready to race.”

Mount Si closes out the regular season this week at Mercer Island, then postseason begins Oct. 21 with the league meet in Issaquah.