ROYAL CITY — Tuning up for a league lead showdown with Zillah this Thursday, the Royal boys and girls ran away in races at Granger last Thursday to improve to 5-0 in South Central A Conference cross country.

Zillah, which has the No. 2-ranked 1A girls team in the state and a good boys team, will be at Royal at 4 p.m. Thursday, along with Wahluke and Cle Elum.

The Royal girls are ready. They are the two-time defending league champs, and they really rolled at Granger, taking seven of the top 10 places against LaSalle, Naches and Granger.

The team scores worked out to: Royal 15, LaSalle, 50; Royal 16, Naches 47; and Royal 17, Granger 46.

Sophomore individual state contender Kay Lester went to the front immediately. By the time she came around to the finish, no other runner was in sight.

By halfway through the race, Royal had seven of the top 10 places.

The girls’ finish was: 1. Kay Lester (R) 20:53; 2. Elizabeth Guadarrama (R) 21:30; 3. Gracelynn Miller (R) 21:36; 6. Abigail Delay (R) 22:49; 8. Megan Mianecki (R) 23:11; 9. Caitlin Diaz (R) 23:25; and 10, Anahi Gomez (R) 23:33.

The boys, who are seeking their sixth straight league title, took six of the top 10 finishes, but they couldn’t capture first. That went to Terrell Manjarez of White Swan, who ran free and easy to clock 17:39.

Royal’s Silver Beltran, stayed on Manjarez’s heals all the way but couldn’t catch him. He clocked 17:50.

The boys paced themselves from the start and, except for Beltran were 10 deep in the pack. But slowly they picked up the pace. By halfway through the race, Royal had seven of the top nine spots.

The team scores were: Royal 17, Granger 46; Royal 15, La Salle 49; and Royal 15, Granger 47.

The order of finish for Royal was: 2. Silver Beltran (R) 17:50; 3. Victor Garcia (R) 17:58; 4. Rodolfo Flores (R) 18:15; 6, Victor Santillan(R) 18:33; 9. Cristian Garcia (R) 18:46; and 10. Eduardo Rodriguez (R) 18:47.