MARYSVILLE The Lakewood Cougars and Lady Cougars harriers both finished in the top 10 at the North County class meet Thursday, Oct. 12, at Cedarcrest Golf Course.
The male Cougars placed fifth out of 17 teams and the Lady Cougars came in seventh overall.
The 5K (3.1-mile) race consisted of four different races with the four grade levels running both sexes together.
The Cougars were paced by a handful of top-10 finishers: freshman Taylor Guske placed sixth overall among the class of 2010 (17:52), classmate Chad Skiles ninth (18:07); juniors Trevor Walker (17:18) and Terrence Ordonez (17:21) came in seventh and eight, respectively; and senior James Ervin placed ninth in 17:13.
Coach Jeff Sowards said it was a breakthrough race for Walker.
We are really pleased with his performance, Sowards said. He has done that by patience and a lot of hard work. Not to diminish anything from his teammates, but his was the most outstanding performance on the afternoon.
The Lady Cougars had three top-10 finishers; led by the senior fifth- and sixth-place finishes of Corrine Gogert (20:14) and Danielle Osti (20:40) and freshman Chelsea Sowards ninth-place time of 21:26.
Echoing a common theme among the coaches and student-athletes, coach Sowards said he liked the way the course was set up.
It was probably set up to produce some fast times. Overall, we were pleased with the way the kids raced. Last year as a team we didnt race all that well, but were real pleased with the way they did this year.
The popular meet served as the final regular-season competition before the Cougars and their fellow harriers taper off for district and state.
Lakewood will host the Cascades Conference meet Saturday, Oct. 21, that will include a total of eight races among different leagues.
Racing begins at 10:30 a.m.