Bothell, Eastlake, NewPort and North Creek head to Beaver Lake in Sammamish for a King County 4A battle tomorrow.
On the boys side, NewPort comes in as favorites on the team side and rank 5th in Washington as a team coming into the season. They're led by Brent Nakashima and Brett Hanley up front who have personal-best marks of 16:14 and 16:15.
While they'll be expected to lead the way for NewPort, junior Ethan Pedersen of Eastlake comes in with the fastest personal best at 16:02 from last year at Redmond. Pedersen opened the season with a 9:26 Two Mile at the KingCO Pre-Season Class Race, which was the fastest mark of the day by a decent margin.
Pedersen and Eastlake look to have run as a team in their first 5K of the season against Redmond and Issaquah, so we could see the team battle between NewPort and Eastlake be more interesting than the virtual meet projects.
NewPort's Brett Hanley, Jeffrey Lewis and Oscar Pont each come in with top 5 marks in the quad meet.
| PLACE | ATHLETE | GRADE | TEAM | TIME | POINTS | |
| 1 | Ethan Pedersen | 2023 | Eastlake High School | 16:02.50 | 1 | |
| 2 | Brent Nakashima | 2022 | NewPort HS | 16:14.60 | 2 | |
| 3 | Brett Hanley | 2022 | NewPort HS | 16:15.00 | 3 | |
| 4 | Jeffrey Lewis | 2024 | NewPort HS | 16:56.40 | 4 | |
| 5 | Oscar Pont | 2022 | NewPort HS | 17:10.70 | 5 | |
| 6 | Sam Jacobsen | 2022 | NewPort HS | 17:13.86 | 6 | |
| 7 | Brooks Kapfhammer | 2025 | NewPort HS | 17:13.89 | 7 | |
| 8 | Noah Zahn | 2023 | Eastlake High School | 17:25.50 | 8 | |
| 9 | Christopher Lynn | 2023 | Eastlake High School | 17:37.30 | 9 | |
| 10 | Quinn Hulet | 2022 | Eastlake High School | 17:44.90 | 10 |
On the girls side, Emily Van Valkenburg comes in as the favorite. She holds a fast 17:15 5K personal best where she won the Unattached Sweeps Race in Arizona at Desert Twilight over a strong field. It was her only cross country race from a year ago, but Van Valkenburg ran 5:17 and 11:00 for 1600m and 3200m on the track. We'll see if she decides to go after a fast mark in her season debut today.
Lauren Hoyt (Bothell) comes in with the only other sub-20 credentials to the event with a 19:35 last April as a freshman taking 2nd in the Northshore Championships.
This is where the race gets interesting, at least on paper, as Alyssa Flindt and Fiona Wolf lead a group of five Eastport athletes alongside Ainsley Herron (Bothell) and Mia Roberts (NewPort) who all come into the meet with personal bests within 25 seconds of each other.
Eastlake currently rank 26th in Washington without Emily Van Valkenburg and likely not an all out effort from the remaining of their top 7 over 5000m. We'll see if they impress to climb into the top 10 of the state with a strong performance today.
| PLACE | ATHLETE | GRADE | TEAM | TIME | POINTS | |
| 1 | Emily Van Valkenburg | 2022 | Eastlake High School | 17:15.48 | 1 | |
| 2 | Lauren Hoyt | 2025 | Bothell Senior High School | 19:35.41 | 2 | |
| 3 | Alyssa Flindt | 2023 | Eastlake High School | 20:09.60 | 3 | |
| 4 | Abbey Van Valkenburg | 2024 | Eastlake High School | 20:10.20 | 4 | |
| 5 | Claudia Wolf | 2022 | Eastlake High School | 20:20.30 | 5 | |
| 6 | Peyton Quinto | 2023 | Eastlake High School | 20:22.98 | 6 | |
| 7 | Ainsley Herron | 2023 | Bothell Senior High School | 20:23.70 | 7 | |
| 8 | Ava Hagwell | 2023 | Eastlake High School | 20:30.30 | 8 | |
| 9 | Mia Roberts | 2022 | NewPort HS | 20:34.99 | 9 | |
| 10 | Fiona Wolf | 2025 | Eastlake High School | 21:04.60 | 10 |