Freshman Karen Brewer finished third in the freshman girls’ race in Bellingham Saturday, recording the 16th-fastest time among the 500 runners in four separate heats.
The Liberty Bell High School cross country teams opened their season Saturday at the Gear Up Northwest XC Preview in Bellingham. The meet was hosted by Sehome High School and featured races by class year instead of the usual pitting of full teams in each race. The course was also 1.1 miles shorter than a typical 3.1 mile (5 kilometer) high school race.
Several Mountain Lions placed highly among their class peers, including ninth-grader Karen Brewer’s third place among the 147 runners in the freshman girls’ field.
Mountain Lion sophomore Lena DeCuir placed 11th in the 152-runner sophomore field, where locals Tova Slostad and Zoie Dubowy ran together, placing 46th and 47th.
Liberty Bell had enough runners in the girls’ junior class race to score as a team. They were led by Maren Sands in 33rd place, out of 175 runners. Nina Halpin (59th) and Madison Williams (64th) came home in the top half of the field, followed by Elsa Gutzler (112th), Bhavana Sabold (140th) and Kylie Ellis (150th). The junior girls placed seventh of the 12 teams posting scores.
Ellis earned coach Liam Daily’s “Shoutout of the Week” on the girls’ team for lopping over two and a half minutes off her 2025 Gear Up time, run on the same course.
Ingrid Venable, the only senior girl racer, placed 41st overall in the field of 116 seniors.
For the boys, the junior class fielded the requite five runners for a scoring team. As the only B school in the field, the Mountain Lions scored well, placing fifth as a team in a 12-school race that included 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A schools.
Holden Brewer (10th) led the way in the 130-runner field for the Mountain Lions. Soren Decuir placed 24th, River Ferguson 34th, Crispin Andersen took 61st and earned Daily’s “Shoutout” for the boys as his time of 11:50 was over a minute faster than last year’s time on the same course. Lucas Gatlin (111th) also showed substantial improvement over his freshman run.
Orlo Parkinson (83rd) the lone senior boy for Liberty Bell, lopped 14 seconds and jumped five places over last year’s Gear Up run.
The Mountain Lions head for Wenatchee this Saturday for their annual run at Walla Walla Point City Park, the first 5K race of the season. Twelve B class schools from central and eastern Washington will be in attendance and should offer a first glimpse into how the rest of the season might shake out for Liberty Bell.
Among the field will be boys’ defending state 2B champion Waylon Stoneburg-Schafer of Cle Elum-Roslyn, and defending girls’ B champion Grace Walsh from Manson. Varsity races are at 1 p.m. for girls and 1:30 p.m. for boys.
