On Saturday, November 4th, four of Blanchet’s cross country athletes traveled to Pasco, Washington for the annual state meet, this is the second time in the past forty-two years neither teams qualified for state.

The Braves struggled as a team throughout the whole 2017 season, but had many outstanding individual runners that qualified for the state meet which include, Drew Schornak, Emma Flood, Michael Lewis, and Olivia Freeman.

Assistant boys cross country coach Thomas Albes was very impressed with all the runners who competed at state.

“Drew continued his phenomenal season with a huge personal best at the state meet to finish 22nd,” said Albes. “Michael also had a fantastic race at state as well. He finished with a personal best and was 66th overall. It is hard to ask for much more than a personal best at the state meet.”

Senior captain Drew Schornak was upset that neither the boys or girls teams qualified for the state meet this season, nonetheless he was proud of what the individuals accomplished.

“It’s sad neither of the teams qualified for state,” said Schornak. “But all of the individuals performed so well and there were many personal records broken at the meet, so it was hard to complain.”

The younger members of the team, freshman Olivia Freeman placed 25th overall in 3A at the time of 18:48 and sophomore Michael Lewis placed 66th overall in 3A at the time of 16:31.

Both senior captains who competed at state did extremely well with Drew Schornak placing 22nd overall in 3A with a time of 15:59 and Emma Flood placing 84th overall in 3A with a time of 20:01.

The cross country team plans on coming back stronger, faster, and better next season, and in the meantime are looking forward to the upcoming track and field season.