KW boys, Dittmer, Jarrett and Brown still running

The Westside Classic offered something different for everyone as local cross country teams gathered at the American Lake Golf Course in Lakewood last Saturday to duke it out for state meet berths.

For Bremerton’s Josh Brown, it was the chance to continue his journey with a long-awaited trip to today’s state meet at Pasco’s Sun Willows Golf Course.

King’s West’s Ashley Dittmer ran well enough to finish 16th, while Rachel Jarrett pushed hard to finish 23rd.

“We didn’t get the whole team to state, but it’s nice to have one other person joining me at the state meet,” Dittmer said.

Other than gusty northerly winds, Dittmer said the weather was almost perfect for running as the predicted rains held off the entire day.

“My goal for state is to run hard and try to set a personal record,” Dittmer said.

The King’s West boys team, which placed second at its league meet a week earlier, qualified by the slimmest of margins, edging league rival Bear Creek by three points.

“We accomplished our mission and our guys pretty much stuck to the plan coming into the race,” Sheline, who continued a 19-year run of qualifying runners for the state meet.

The Warriors were led by Nick Webster and Chris Anderson, who finished second and third with times of 19:01 and 19:34 unofficially.

“We gave it our all and considering the conditions I think our times were pretty good,” said Webster, who also finished second at the league meet.

After a successful meet Sheline said he will only make one change in strategy for the state meet.

“We’re going to let Nick go and run all out and see what we do as a team,” Sheline said.

Bremerton’s Josh Brown had one goal in mind during his return to the district meet and when the dust settled, he ran himself into the state meet.

“My goal was to make the state meet and I’m extremely pleased with the way I ran today,” said Brown, who finished 35th.

The race was extremely fast and everything went according to his pre-race plans, Brown said.

“I really dug down deep at the end and held off the runners behind me,” he said. “I think I set a personal record today and I’m looking forward to state.”

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