By Brandon Cossel
Journal Reporter
KIRKLAND— It wasn\'t much of a surprise that Woodinville\'s Doug Holt won the race.
Redmond raised some eyebrows, though, by claiming the team title at the Class 4A District 2/4 cross country championships on Saturday at Finn Hill Junior High.
\"Now this is a surprise. Not for us, but I think for everybody else,\" Mustangs coach Denis Villenueve said. \"We ran a pretty smart, even-paced race and just got in our positions at the end.\"
Redmond finished third at the Kingco meet last week, but got a much improved run from Matt Stearns and the expected solid efforts elsewhere to edge Roosevelt 79-84.
\"Stearns was hurt in the first part of the year and he\'s just been coming on,\" Villenueve said. \"Basically what happened today is Stearns went up to where we thought he would be at Kingco.\"
Anthony Ellis was the highest-placing Redmond runner, taking fourth, and he was followed by Aiden Irish (9th), Mack Young (34th) and Nathan Villeneuve (42nd).
Redmond, Roosevelt, Heritage and Bothell, led by Matt Brown (14th), advance to the state meet in Pasco next Saturday.
While the team standings were tight, Holt made the finish somewhat anticlimactic.
The pack was fairly tight for the first part of the 3.1-mile course, but around the one-mile mark Holt found another gear.
\"I just wanted to go out semi-relaxed for the first mile,\" he said. \"I knew if I went out too hard it was going to really hit me later on in the race with all the hills and turns. I took the lead at about a half-mile and I just stayed relaxed through the mile mark. From there I started cranking it up.\"
He wasn\'t really challenged after that point and by the time he crossed the finish line, the second-place runner was just making the turn onto the final straight-away. Holt\'s time of 16:05 was 15 seconds ahead of the field.
Though he said he didn\'t have a particular time goal in mind for this course, Holt was happy about his performance heading into the state meet.
\"I feel I\'m in perfect position right now,\" Holt said. \"I think I\'m in excellent shape. Everyone\'s saying it\'s going to be a deep year at state. I think this race is a good example that if I\'m not going to be in first, I\'m going to be right up there.\"
Juanita\'s David McCary took sixth place and earned a berth in the state meet. Woodinville\'s Etienne Aridj (16th) and Lake Washington\'s Warner Smidt (19th) will join him at state.