Sea-King 3A Cross Country | Seattle Prep runs away with district

There are 21 Class 3A schools in the Sea-King District, but the cross-country talent is concentrated at four of them.

Seattle Prep, Bellevue, Mercer Island and Bishop Blanchet each qualified their boys and girls teams Thursday at Lower Woodland for next weekend's state meet in Pasco. There was a fifth state berth for boys, and Nathan Hale grabbed it.

Seattle Prep brought cheerleaders to the meet and gave them something to cheer about. The Panthers finished atop the team standings for both genders and also had the first-place runners.

Metro League champ Drew O'Donoghue-McDonald covered the 3.1-mile course in 15 minutes, 44 seconds to win the boys race. Prep senior Carey Parker, second in Metro last week behind teammate Laura Sauvage, won the girls race in 18:42. Mercer Island freshman Lindsay Benster was 10 seconds behind Parker, and Sauvage was third in 19:15.

The Prep goal was to advance its teams without exhausting them.

"The purpose today is to qualify," said Prep boys coach John Robertson.

Parker said, "Everyone on our team is saving up for state."

O'Donoghue-McDonald ran 5 seconds slower than last week and took the lead at about the 2-mile mark.

"I pushed it real hard the last 800," the junior said.

He couldn't stay in cruise control because on his tail was Ingraham junior Abraham Berhe, who finished three seconds behind in 15:47. Berhe, who advances to state as an individual, ran for 4A Roosevelt last year. He attended Lynnwood for a while this fall before transferring to Ingraham.

Prep's boys, ranked No. 2 among 3A schools in the state behind national No. 1 North Central of Spokane, finished with 43 points in winning their fourth straight district title. Bellevue was second with 66 points, followed by Mercer Island (84), Bishop Blanchet (102) and Nathan Hale 131. Blanchet has qualified for the state meet 31 consecutive years.

The top-ranked Prep girls team won with 34 points and was followed by Mercer Island (69), Bellevue (82) and Blanchet (113).

One success story at the meet was the presence of a Cleveland girls team because the school had insufficient turnout even to field a squad last year, let alone qualify for district.

Bellevue laid claim to the biggest school flag (an estimated 7x12 feet) at the meet and the most veteran assistant coach, Cliff Nixon, 72, who is in his 50th year of coaching.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com