By the Herald staff
The prep postseason begins today with the Columbia Basin League district cross country championships at Walla Walla Point Park in Wenatchee and the Blue Mountain League meet in Waitsburg.
The CBL meet begins at 3 p.m. with the 3A girls race, following by the 4A girls, 3A boys and 4A boys. Unlike the past two years, the race will not serve as a regional qualifier; all teams will participate a week from Saturday at the Eastern Regionals at Franklin Park in Yakima.
Most teams like having the district meet at Walla Walla Point Park, a relatively flat course that provides a nice warmup for next week\'s more demanding setup.
\"It doesn\'t have the demands of a hilly course like Yakima,\" said Kamiakin boys coach Matt Rexus. \"It doesn\'t mean it\'s easy, but you can run well there without taxing your body too much, and when you\'re running against Spokane the following week, you don\'t want to tax yourself too much.\"
Rexus\' team won the 3A dual-meet title and moved into the state rankings at No. 9 despite being without junior Derek Scott for much of the season with a foot injury.
Scott, who missed last week\'s dual because of illness, will run today but won\'t be at 100 percent.
\"Right now, we\'re looking to our seniors to step it up,\" Rexus said. \"Brad Young and Jake Griffiths had a nice race last week. They took control early on and got our team to be more aggressive than they had been. If they do what we expect them to do tomorrow, they should finish in the top three and we should be OK.\"
-- Asotin figures to be the top cat at today\'s BML meet, which serves as a tuneup for next Thursday\'s district championships in Pomeroy. Tri-Cities Prep has a couple of individuals to watch -- freshmen Samuel Mota-Martinez in the boys race and Carina Leon (fourth in the JV/frosh race at the Richland Invite)1 in the girls -- and Dayton\'s Tyler Stevens will contend in the boys race.