Cross country: Franco wins Elite race at Sunfair, Kamiakin boys nearly sweep varsity heats

SUNFAIR INVITATIONAL: Jonah Franco won the 3-mile Boys Elite race in 15 minutes, 33.61 seconds, and five of Kamiakin’s six other boys runners won their respective heats as the Braves blew away the 17-team field Saturday at Franklin Park in Yakima.

Ryan Child won the No. 2 race in 15:48.34, Porter Grigg the No. 3 flight in 16:03.52, Stanford Smith against the No. 4 runners in 16:14.37, Sawyer Moon against the 6s in 16:39.16 and Jax Weide took the No. 7 heat in 16:58.18. The only Brave varsity runner to not win their race was Preston Glade, who was the runner-up in the No. 5 race in 16:38.55.

For the girls team, McKinzi Teeples finished the No. 1 race in 19:12.49 finish and Hannah Paulson was seventh in the No. 2 race in 19:47.87 to lead Kamiakin to a fifth-place team finish.

PASCO BULLDOG INVITE: Kennewick’s Geraldin (19:48.0) and Johan Correa (16:19.5) won the girls and boys 5,000-meter varsity races, respectively, but the Richland Bombers captured the team titles in both races Saturday at Big Cross in Pasco.

Jesse Todd and Anthony Stone led the Richland boys, with Emma Summers (20:21.9, third), Sophia Fetrow (21:22.0, sixth) and Bailee Carr (21:30.2, seventh) finishing near the top for the girls team.

Chiawana’s Alexa Neff took fourth in the girls race 20:55.5, and Pasco’s Ismael Castaneda (16:41.6, third) and Connell’s Nolan Chase (16:53.3, sixth) had strong showings on the boys’ side.

This story was originally published October 1, 2017 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Cross country: Franco wins Elite race at Sunfair, Kamiakin boys nearly sweep varsity heats."