MARYSVILLE — Cutting across the neatly trimmed greens of Cedarcrest Golf Course, it’s difficult to avoid the sensations not typically associated with golf.
A dull roar, like cheers that would distract ordinary golfers, rises up from the lower land in the northwest corner of Marysville’s public golf course. The sun glows a deep orange as it sets behind the Olympic mountains and the stadium lighting that freckles the golf course landscape starts to assume primary responsibility for showing the way. And then there’s the unmistakable minty smell of Ben-Gay emanating from the tents set up around the 10th green.
No, it may be a golf course, but any golfers present aren’t here to compete on the links.
Cedarcrest has been taken over by the essence of a large cross country meet — M-P’s second Tomahawk Twilight Meet. Races kicked off at 5 p.m. and continued to heat up as the sun sinks with the varsity races taking place on stadium lighting.
Marysville senior Lauren Ainsworth had one of the top finishes for Tomahawk runners. Running a personal season-best time of 20:08.76, she finished in 24th place, leading the varsity girls crew of Kaylie Kimmell, Zoe Gibson and Veronica Hall in the girls varsity top four race.
On the boys’ side, junior Josh Laquian had a personal record in the 5k, running 17:22.28 to finish 14 places behind senior Ryan Lanphere in 54th place. The quartet was rounded out by juniors Josh Rasmussen and Stevie Utt who finished back to back in 91st and 92nd place.
Utt came into the meet coming off a huge personal record in a North-South meet earlier in the week. While Utt didn’t best his 17:17 time, he said he was inspired to compete with the times of upperclassmen who had come before him.
“When I looked at their times, I knew I could beat them,” he said. “It was like they were running with me.”
Though the home meet was their third in seven days, Utt added that the team was motivated to run a little harder as the host of such a big invite.
Marysville’s other notable finish included a sixth-place showing by freshman Izzy Enick in the open race following the varsity event.
After finding out their varsity counterparts had placed first and fourth as a team at the Stanford Invite in Palo Alto, Calif., the boys and girls Lakewood squad that came to the Twilight Meet seemed a little more energized.
Freshman Rachel Cundy led the girls, placing 66th with a time of 21:19.53. Also competing for the Lakewood girls were freshman Mikaela Skiles, junior Kathleen Austad and sophomore Aisha Butler. Finishing first for the boys was senior Devon Smith in 18:18.48. He was followed by junior Nick Howe, freshman Kris Mugrage and senior Craig Hooks.
