Nationally ranked Kamiakin runners win 3rd consecutive state title — and a surprise

Isaac Teeples became a star on Saturday.

Teeples, a Kamiakin sophomore, has just gotten better each time out this season while running for the nationally ranked Braves.

Everyone knows he’s a good runner.

But even the crowd at the finish line let out a little gasp when Teeples appeared over the final hill, all alone and in first place during the 3A boys race at the WIAA state high school cross country championships at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.

He crossed the finish line first in 15 minutes, 18.10 seconds with his hand raised and a look of elation on his face.

“When I realized I was going to win, I thought, ‘I did it! I did it! I wanted to do it and I did it!’” said Teeples.

It capped another outstanding day for the Kamiakin boys, ranked 8th in the nation in the latest high school boys poll by Dyestat.com.

The Braves won another team title with 34 points — their third consecutive state team title.

The spread from Teeples to the fifth runner was just 36 seconds.

“As far as a state performance, it’s No. 1 among all of my teams,” said Kamiakin boys coach Matt Rexus. “But we’ll have to prove it again next week at regionals.

However, the consistency of the boys all season long, and the way they have brought it to every meet, has been amazing.

”Besides Teeples, senior Stanford Smith finished in third at 15:27.0, while the next three scoring runners — Andrew Holladay (13th), Andrew Larson (16th) and Jax Weide (18th) — finished among the top 18 out of 159 runners.

Other finishers

Kamiakin’s boys weren’t the only Mid-Columbian standouts on Saturday.

Richland sophomore Natalie Ruzauskas ran as hard as she could over the final 100 meters to pass Roz Slichko of Emerald Ridge at the finish line and nab second place in the 4A girls race.

Ruzauskas, who won the District 8 meet in Spokane last week, found herself in fifth place after the 1-mile mark. But she moved up into second after 2 miles.

Slichko, she said, passed her at the top of the hill with 500 meters to go.

Kennewick’s Geraldin Correa finished fifth in the 3A girls race, ending her prep career in cross country. Correa led her Kennewick teammates to a team finish of seventh out of 16 squads.

In the 1A boys race, Connell junior Dallin Price placed sixth out of 155 runners.

Altogether, there were 1,546 competitors involved in 12 total races.