TOLEDO Ilwacos first-meet jitters are now a thing of the past. For Evan Sutherland they werent even a bother as the Fishermen junior literally ran away with a seven-school Lewis and Clark Trail cross country meet that was the lid-lifter for the 2013 season.

Sutherland, who ran at last years state cross country meet, finished with a time of 18:41, a full 32 seconds better than second-place Forrest Wallace from Toledo. All of our athletes ran very well. The course has two loops around (Lewis and Clark State Park) and then up a very steep hill followed by a narrow trail. Evan was fifth or sixth as the runners went on the trail, but when they came out, Evan was well ahead of the next runner, coach Sarah Taylor explained.

I was surprised that I did as well as I did for our first race. I wasnt too sure how I would stack up against the rest of the league. I improved 26 seconds over my time on this course last year. I was behind five runners when I entered the woods, but I quickly caught up to the pack and then began picking them off one by one, Sutherland stated.

When I came out of the woods I was in first place and I decided to pick up the pace on the long downhill part of the course. I was pretty tired at the end of the race, but I was able to keep close to my pace, Sutherland said. He placed well ahead of Trico 1A League competitors from Kalama (Jared Hulsizer, 20:18) and from Castle Rock (Ben Patrick, 20:22).

Fishermen Daniel Scheller placed 15th in 21:11, Kenny Price was 18th in 21:31, Ben Brownlee finished 22nd with a time of 21:36 and Marcos Mendoza rounded out team scoring by placing 24th in 22:08. Blake Hajdok was 32nd in 23:40, Otto Kemmer 36th in 23:58 and Ryan Schenk finished 47th in 27:06.

Toledo tallied 39 points to win the boys race, followed by Mossyrock with 56, Ilwaco scored 80, Kalama had 84, Morton-White Pass scored 108, Castle Rock was sixth with 147 points and Adna ran seventh with 176 points. There were 55 boys who finished the first race of the season for many.

In the girls division Mossyrock edged Morton-White Pass 30 points to 40 to win, followed by Castle Rock with 64 and Ilwaco with 76 points. Kalama, Toledo, Mossyrock and Adna ran incomplete and there were 55 girls who finished the race. Charity Fleck led Ilwaco with a 14th-place finish in 27:02, followed by Brianna Baird 24th, 31:03, Beth Winters 25th, 31:17, Isabel Benenati 26th, 31:20 and Merissa Cass 27th, 31:23.

The Lady Fishermen contingent took full advantage of running as a pack to help improve times. Mossyrock and Morton-White Pass could very well again contend for the state 1B/2B cross country championship with Northwest Christian and Ocosta.

Also competing for the Lady Fishermen were Emma Fleck who was 31st in 33:16, Grace Bruncke was 33rd in 35:32 and Katie Jacobson was 34th in 39:11.

Ilwaco had the only complete middle school boys team and the Ilwaco middle school girls finished second to Kalama 18 points to 40. Jacob Zaidins was second with a time of 15:52 and Phillip Gittings was right behind in third in a time of 15:55. Noah Carper was sixth, Adam Rutherford seventh and Jared Rutherford claimed eighth.

Lilyana Doupe was fourth for the middle school girls in 16:18, Kasey Baegent was 10th, Maddy Chabot 12th, Cheyenne Bent 14th and Jessie Huntley-Stern finished 16th for the girls.

I was very pleased with how well all of our freshmen did in their first meet of the season. This was the first high school cross country race for each of them and they all did very well. We also had some seventh graders really stand out from the crowd, which helps to build the program. Middle school coach Kelly Jacobsen is really doing a great job, coach Taylor praised.

Charity had a great first race. She has a lot of speed. Merissa and Beth have been pushing themselves in practice and are really doing well. Grace, Emma and Katie are nursing some soreness, but will continue to improve during the season. Isabel and Brianna were able to run during the summer and it has been paying off, Taylor stated.

Daniel ran well and he has been trying to stay near Evan in practice. Kenny improved his time on this course from last year by a minute and Otto improved his time by nearly three minutes. Ben, Marcos and Blake really started their first high school season off with a good race. Ryan twisted his ankle on a root, but still managed to finish the race strong, coach Taylor concluded.