Tahoma had a great day at the South Puget Sound League sub-district cross country meet on Oct. 22 at Fort Steilacoom park.

The girls took home first place, while the boys placed second, which qualifies them to advance to the West Central District meet on Saturday.

Kent School District runners did well, too, with the fleet footed pair of Alexia Martin and Ruby Virk from Kent-Meridian earning spots at the district meet, as well as Megan Rogers of Kentlake, who finished 14th, and fellow Falcon Terra McGinnis, who finished right behind her teammate — a significant improvement over her showing a year ago when she finished 53rd.

Bears Head Coach Gary Conner was pleased with the performance of both teams.

“They ran really well,” Conner said. “That’s the first time I really let them run.”

Top runners for the Tahoma girls included junior Elizabeth Oosterhout, who finished third with a time of 18 minutes, 52 seconds, and freshman Abby Atchison who came in fifth at 19:14.

“I felt really good,” Oosterhout said. “I had some really good competition. It was close to my best time, so it was exciting.”

Conner said he was equally pleased with her performance.

“She’s rocking,” he said. “She’s the real deal.”

Atchison said she was pleased with her time, which is a personal record.

“I was really excited,” she said. “It was a lot faster than I had run before.”

Conner stated he expects Atchison to run under 19 minutes at the state championship meet.

On the Tahoma boy’s team, junior James Dagley came in third with a time of 16:10. Like Atchison, he also ran a PR at the sub-district meet.

“It was where I was seeded to be,” he said. “So it was where I wanted to be.”

Dagley said that although he didn’t break 16 minutes at the meet, he will attempt to do so at the district or state meet.

Conner has no doubts about it.

“They’re going to run faster still,” he said. “It’s gonna come down to a few points and a few seconds.”

On the Kent-Meridian girls team, Martin, a junior, placed fourth at 19:01. She also placed fourth at last year’s subdistrict meet. Virk, a freshman on the Royals squad, crossed the finish line in 10th at 20 minutes. On the boys varsity, senior Teddy Teklu finished 13th at 16:53.

Although Kentwood’s boys varsity qualified for districts, taking fifth place, senior Danny Lunder didn’t quite perform as well as he had hoped. He ended up finishing 23rd with a time of 17:06, compared to last year, when he placed seventh. Junior Dasan Telford was able to finish 18th at 16:58.

The top 20 runners and top four teams advance to the West Central District meet, which will be Saturday, Oct. 29 at the American Lake Golf Course. The winners will then advance to the state championship Nov. 5 in Pasco.