Ballard cross country team sends two to state

By Bucky Beaver

The District championships were held Monday afternoon at Lake Sammamish State Park after being cancelled by the windstorm Saturday.  Ballard High School sent their girls team as well as freshman runner James Konugres.  Sixteen high school girls team were at the event.  The girls finished 9th place just missing qualifying as a team for state. The girls team consisted of freshman Natalie Buecher, sophomores Jamie Smith and Monica Cohen, juniors Taylor Safford, Lauren Kangas
and Adi Carlyle, and senior Carolyn Birkenfeld.

The top 25 individual runners also advanced to state.  Konugres finished 19th and was the only freshman to advance.  He ran a time of 16:10.1.  He currently is the fastest freshman in the state and one of the fastest in the nation.  In the last 12 years of record keeping he is the fastest freshman Ballard has ever had by 32 seconds.  Also advancing was sophomore Jamie Smith.  She finished 17th with a time of 19:01.0.  She also has been breaking records at Ballard High School posting the fastest freshman time by 2 minutes last year and top sophomore time by 25 seconds.

Both Smith and Konugres will compete at the state tournament at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco on Saturday.  Follow updates on how they do on twitter @BallardHSSports

Go Beavers!

Photo courtesy of BHS Athletics.