Vikings Rally Past Jesuit, Become First Idaho Team To Win Nike Hole In The Wall Team Title; Lincoln Beats Jesuit In Showdown Of Oregon Powers; Nathan Neil and Logan Hofstee Win Elite Races

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

PHOTO GALLERY by John Decker

INTERVIEWS

SMOKEY POINT, Wash. – For as dominant a season the Coeur d’Alene boys cross country team is having this fall, the Vikings were bound to face adversity at some point.

Winning by an average of 62.25 points in four victories so far, Coeur d’Alene found itself in uncharted territory at the Nike Hole in the Wall Invitational when the Vikings were trailing Jesuit of Portland by as much as 22 points heading into the final mile.

Facing the possibility of defeat for the first time in 2023, Coeur d’Alene delivered in a big way over the final stretch to complete one of the greatest comebacks in meet history.

Couer d’Alene, ranked No. 10 in the DyeStat national rankings, beat No. 14 Jesuit 68-86 in the boys elite race Saturday at Lakewood High.

Led by Lachlan May and Maximus Cervi-Skinner finishing in the top 10 as individuals, the Vikings placed five scorers in the top 35 to become the first team from the state of Idaho to win a team title at Hole in the Wall. May was fourth in 15 minutes, 19 seconds and Cervi-Skinner was seventh in 15:25.1. 

“It’s just about working together,” May said. “I was running with Max most of the race and we were kind of working off of each other…I know it was that team bond that pushed us throughout the race.”

Coeur d’Alene suffered a couple of early setbacks. Jacob King fell before first mile and Zackery Cervi-Skinner ran into a pole, which scratched his shoulder. With all of that unfolding early on, Coeur  d’Alene trailed Jesuit by 19 points through the first mile.

The deficit continued to grow as Jesuit, last year's NXN runner-up, increased its lead by three more points thanks to five of its runners being in the top 30, including Caden Swanson out front in first place.

While May and Maximus Cervi-Skinner held their own in the top 10, it was King and Wyatt Carr who made up the biggest deficits for Coeur d’Alene over the last mile. King, 22nd after two miles, climbed up to 15th in 15:41. Carr moved from 33rd to 21st and finished in 15:51.9. 

Mitchell Rietze also made a late charge to complete the Vikings score, going from 45th to 34th to finish in 16:00.8, with teammates Zackery Cervi-Skinner finishing 39th in 16:05.6 and Kyle Rohlinger placing 57th in 16:27.2.

“I owe it to them,” King said. “The whole time I was worried we had lost it because I should have been further ahead, but I fell and didn’t know what I could do…Really what it came down to was our fifth and sixth guys pulled up and closed in on me…We did it somehow.”

Jesuit pushed the pace early on thanks in part to Swanson being out front in the lead pack through the first mile with Bozeman MT’s Nathan Neil and Anacortes WA's Parker Mong. As the group made its way back onto the track for the final lap, Swanson took over the lead heading back into trail portion of the course, where increased his lead slightly through the 2.25-mile split.

Upon reaching the hairpin turn with over half a mile to go, Neil threw in a big surge to separate himself for good from both Swanson and Mong, leading to an eventual win in a time of 14:53.9. That was eight seconds off the meet record of 14:45.5 set by James Crabtree of Sherwood OR in 2021.

Mong edged out Swanson for second place by a margin of 15:14.7 to 15:14.9. Zachary Leader from Redmond WA finished in fifth in 15:20.7, with Mercer Island WA’s Owen Powell was sixth in 15:22.7.

Cooper Boyle of Tahoma WA claimed eighth place in 15:25.5, with Enumclaw WA's McCoy Brooks (15:30.9, 9th) and Columbia River WA’s Jacob McManus (15:33.7, 10th) rounding out the top 10.

Torrey Pines from California scored 171 points to finish third in the team standings, with Bryce Conover leading the way in 14th place in 15:38.8.

Crosstown rivals Lincoln and Jesuit from Portland delivered another back-and-forth battle to their storied history on the girls side, with Lincoln prevailing over Jesuit 62-94.

The Cardinals placed four girls in the top 15, with freshman phenom Ellery Lincoln finishing third overall in a massive personal-best effort of 17:33.6, knocking 30 seconds from her previous best at the Bob Firman Invitational on Sept. 23 in Boise. 

“We went into this race saying, ‘We’re going to worry about ourselves; we’re going to take care of business’,” Lincoln said. “We knew if we focused on ourselves to do everything to the best of our ability, that’s what’s going to help us win.”

Jesuit led by as much as 17 points through the first mile before the Cardinals moved to the lead by three points heading into the last mile. Sophia Malinoski and Elyse Henriksen made up ground over the final 300 meters, with Malinoski passing two people to finish 12th in 18:23.5 and Henriksen outkicking five people to place 14th in 18:31.3.

Keira Saavedra, who was fourth at Bob Firman for Lincoln, rounded out the top 15 in a time of 18:34, just ahead of Jesuit’s second and third runners. Amelia James climbed up 10 spots on the final mile to finish 35th in 19:03.6 to cap off the scoring for the Cardinals.

“They are just really awesome on relying on each other,” said head coach Eric Dettman, who defeated Jesuit for the first time in his 11 years at Lincoln as the girls coach.

“One of our big mottos, our number one mantra is, ‘Love your teammates,’ and they kind of embodied that across the board," he said. "One person might struggle, and another person steps up, and that’s been the epitome of what’s this season been over the last couple of weeks. Jesuit’s really good; we know that. We know that they are kind of the benchmark of the state of Oregon and we want to be in that conversation, so we try to establish ourselves such as that.”

Jesuit placed three girls in the top 20 with Emma Bennett 11th in 18:22.7, followed by Maeve O’Scannlain in 16th in 18:37.5 and Liliana Hudnut in 17th in 18:44.4.

Mount Si WA scored 154 points to claim third place behind twins Hailey Cossey placing 18th in 18:44.7 and Aleeya Cossey placing 19th in 18:46.2.

Following a fourth-place finish in last year’s meet, East Valley-Spokane WA’s Logan Hofstee won the individual title in 17:11.2, defeating last year’s champion Anna Callahan of Skyline by 15 seconds in 17:26.3.

Hofstee was in the lead with less than a mile to go after trailing in third through the first half of the race. She continued to build her lead by as much 100 meters, heading into the homestretch with nobody else within her sight.

Callahan’s teammate Rebecca O’Keefe matched her fifth-place finish from last year’s meet but was able to improve upon her time in 17:39.5.

Skyline’s Nelah Roberts from Idaho Falls ran a seasons-best 17:36.1 to finish fourth overall.

Mercer Island’s sister duo of Sophia and Victoria Rodriguez finished sixth and seventh, respectively, with Sophia running 17:42.2 and Victoria running 17:49.5.

Bonney Lake WA’s Latham West dipped under 18 minutes to place eighth in 17:53.9, while Timberline’s Ruby Ihmels from Boise and Wenatchee’s Kylah Madariaga finished ninth and 10th, respectively, in 18:12.6 and 18:15.6.

In other varsity races, Bellingham WA’s Berkley Pass and Sophia Koch won their respective competitions, with Pass taking the boys gold race in 15:52.8 and Koch winning the girls silver race in 18:37.6.

Cascade-Leavenworth WA’s Brayden Anderson collected a win in the boys silver race in 16:39.6 and Stanwood WA’s Mary Andelin captured the individual title in the girls gold race in 18:38.