ELLENSBURG — The Ephrata Tigers, Othello Huskies, Royal Knights, Wahluke Warriors and Warden Cougars cross country teams all travelled to Irene Rhineheart Park in Ellensburg on Saturday morning to compete in an Invitational Relay event.

“The Ellensburg Relay provides a great opening race for the season,” said Tigers coach Lyndsy Roberts. “The coed relay feature helps build team chemistry and the distance of 1.5 miles gives athletes a chance to race fast over a manageable distance. The knee-deep water feature also brings an exciting and memorable moment.”

The event featured an individual race as well as a team race where both boys and girls ran together. Ephrata and Othello were two of the top teams in the boys' individual race one, with the Tigers taking second and the Huskies taking fourth. Ephrata and Royal also made the leaderboard in the girls relay with the Tigers taking ninth and the Knights taking 13th.

Roberts said overall, the Tigers had a strong showing at the event, with the boys' side continuing to show depth and improvement. The girls' side displayed a strong 1-2-3 grouping that will help make the team tough in the league, she said.

Two players from the Tigers who stood out were Josiah Caldwell and Rebecca Wiser. Caldwell earned third place in his open race with a time of 9:58, which Roberts said was more than a minute improvement from the previous year. This was Wiser’s first-ever cross-country race, where she ran with a final time of 10:16 and placed 15th overall.

“Really excited for Rebecca,” said the coach. “I’m sure she had first race nerves, but she proved to be more than up to the challenge.”

The Tigers’ top scoring team consisted of Caleb Fitts, Maddax Iverson, Cooper Black, Hannah Malone and Savannah Harper. This team earned eighth in their relay with a final time of 47:18.6.

“Our top team had a great few months of summer running and that hard work was rewarded with their finish,” said Roberts. “They ran extremely consistent and put together a solid performance for this early in the season.”

The Knights earned twelfth overall in the COED relay with their top team of Carlos Barajas, Fabrizio Ramirez, Juan Mendoza, Rebecca Carlson and Valeria Rodriguez taking 21st with a time of 0:51:38.9.

Wahluke’s top runners were Himmbler Bernal, Jesus Lagunas, Jaqueline Cruz, Lesly Nunez and Roselyn Vivar Cadona.

The Cougars’ top runners were Kiley Huber, Anna Marcus and Kyla Tate.

Huskies’ coach Aurelio Guevara said the smoke of the week prior made it hard for the team to prepare and only allowed them to run for about two miles prior to the meet.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of expectations, but we really wanted to run just because they love this Ellensburg meet,” he said. “I was really excited with how some of the kids that have been working really hard this summer came out and did.”

Along with earning fourth in the boys’ individual race One, the Huskies also earned third in the boys’ individual race Two. Their top two runners in the first individual race were Grayson Sams, who ran 10:43.8 and Ari Gonzalez, who ran 10:44.3. The second race had Alejandro Mendoza earn fourth with 8:46.3 and Carlos De la Cruz in twelfth with a final time of 9:08.0.

Guevara said he was very impressed with the junior De la Cruz’s performance at the meet.

“He’s been working really hard all year round and he really had a great performance,” said the coach. “He went from being barely in our top seven last year to being our second guy on Saturday.”

While the Huskies’ girls’ team didn’t place, there were strong individual performances from runners such as Jocelyn Guerrero Gonzalez who earned eleventh.

The Huskies team this year consists of many new faces from all class levels, as some seniors joined the team for the first time, but the experienced members on the team kept everything in place.

The coach said the goal for the team this season is to try to work to improve upon their fourth-place finish last season and hope to have the senior returners, such as Alex Mendoza and Daniel Gonzalez, step up for the team and help bring up the newer runners.

The Huskies and Tigers coaches both expressed their excitement for the rest of the season based on the performances they saw from their teams at the weekend’s meet.

“It’s going to be a great season of racing,” said Roberts.

The Tigers, Knights, Warriors and Cougars next meet will be Saturday, with the Tigers and Cougars going to the Highlander invitational at 8:30 a.m., the Warriors going to Hermiston Melon Fest at 10 a.m. and the Knights going to the Manson Invite at 11:30 a.m. The Huskies' next meet will be Sept. 20 for the 28th annual Wenatchee XC Invite at 9:30 a.m.

    Tiger runners Caleb Fitts, Savannah Harper, Hannah Malone, Cooper Black and Maddax Iverson line up for a photo after earning eighth place with a final time of 47:18.6 in the COED relay event. Tigers coach Lyndsy Roberts said this squad has worked hard in the offseason and their efforts paid off at this meet.
  

    Ephrata’s Zane Sieg runs through the water segment during the Ellensburg Invitational on Saturday. Sieg earned a final relay time of 10:09.5 in the team relay event.
  

    Alejandro Mendoza, Othello, at the water obstacle during the Ellensburg Invitational. Mendoza earned fourth in the individual race event Two, contributing to the team’s overall third-place finish.
  

    Othello’s Ethan Rincon on the course with two athletes from competing schools close behind. Rincon finished the individual race event with a final time of 10:23.1.