Redmond Girls' Cross Country Makes School History at State Meet

Megan LeGresley finished fifth overall, and the Redmond girls' cross country team ended its season with its highest-ever finish, placing third at the WIAA 4A state cross country meet in Pasco on Saturday.

The Mustangs were ranked No. 1 in the state heading into the meet, but faced tough competition from Tahoma and Bellarmine Prep. Tahoma took the state title, with Bellarmine Prep beating Redmond by one point to finish second. The three teams were separated by just 12 points, with the fourth place finisher, Lewis and Clark, finishing 40 points behind Redmond.

"I figured between the three of us, we would go one-two-three and we did, so it actually turned out the way we thought,” Redmond head coach Denis Villeneuve said. “It was so close, any team could have been second or third today.”

Redmond had five runners place in the top 65 at the state meet and actually tied with Tahoma for the best average time of 19:08.6, but was bested by the more placed finishers of Tahoma and Bellarmine Prep.

“It’s hard for everyone to do a huge improvement at state,” Villeneuve said. “We gave (our runners) a range of times, and they all fit into that range and competed well, so we were very satisfied with their performance.”

Redmond was led by the freshman LeGresley, who followed up her second-place finish at regionals with a season-best time of 18:23 to finish fifth. LeGresley was touted by Villeneuve before the season and lived up to her billing as an impact runner.

"She did some summer workouts with us, and, after I saw her run in the summer, I pretty much figured she could be top 10 in state,” Villeneuve said. “She’s just a very instinctual runner, very talented, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that she got fifth.”

Kelsey Dunn finished ninth overall and Holly Young placed 29th to lead the Mustangs, who finished with 100 points. Redmond was an under-the-radar group before the season, but emerged during the year as a power, ultimately beating the program's previous best finish of fourth in 2007.

“I thought we would be in the upper half of the state (at the start of the season), but I didn’t know if we could be in the top three,” Villeneuve said. “But as the season progressed, I really thought so.”

The Redmond boys' team finished 11th, after being the final team to qualify for the state tournament. The Mustangs were decimated by graduation this year, leaving Villeneuve to question whether the team had enough depth to make it to state. They did, and were led by junior Johnathan Stevens' 36th-place finish. Stevens finished with a time of 16:12.

"At the start of the season, I didn’t even know if we could get to state,” Villeneuve said of the boys' team. “As the season progressed, they closed the gap and improved…it was great just to get them to state. It was a huge accomplishment to get to state, because I don’t know if you could have predicted that at the start of the season.

For all state cross country results, click here.