Lady Sparts outrun most competitors

Jordin Stephenson was one of three victorious local cross country runners at last week’s North County Invitational. Astonishingly, the Stanwood girls’ cross country team claimed first place in three of the four races during the annual running of the North County Invitational at Marysville’s Cedarcrest Golf Course last Thursday.

In addition, Jade Borseth, running for the first time this fall since sustaining a preseason injury, grabbed second among all sophomores while finishing just seven seconds (20:03) behind the winner, Teresa Wadey of Arlington. Borseth took fifth in the state among 4A participants in last year’s state cross country championships and has been deeply missed by her fellow runners.

Stanwood stalwarts Minna Fields, Natasha Verma and Jordin Stephenson raced to victories in their respective classes. Those convincing wins, when added to the depth provided with high finishes by some of their fellow Spartans, gave the locals 13 points, nine better than second-place Cedarcrest (22). Twenty girls’ squads participated in the annual invitational altogether.

Minna Fields, a junior, supplied the best time among all 220 female runners with a time of 18 minutes, 24 seconds in the 11th-grade competition.

Natasha Verma raced to a clocking of 19:06 – the second-best clocking of the day – as she ran around the Cedarcrest course.

Freshman Jordin Stephenson had a mark of 19:21, best among the ninth graders and fifth-best overall.

Other Lady Spartan representatives, with their placement and time in parentheses, were seniors Emily Land (22nd, 22:11), Heather Biehl (36th, 23:49) and Rebecca Raible (38th, 23:53), juniors Maddi Davis (14th, 21:24) and Brynna Bodle (20th, 22:14), sophomores Natalie Bergstrom (9th, 20:56), Aisling Cuchna (43rd, 25:44) and Brittany Keller (46th, 25:56) and freshmen Megan Wyles (8th, 21:11), Alexandra Yerigan (22:09) and Laura Wells (43rd, 27:24).

Results from the Lake Padden Loop Invite scheduled to run last Saturday were unavailable by press time.