Efraimson runs to berth in nationals

Camas’ Alexa Efraimson placed third overall and the Camas girls team finished fourth at the Nike Cross Nationals regional race in Boise, Idaho on Saturday.

Efraimson earned an automatic berth to the Nike Cross Nationals meet on Dec. 3 at Portland Meadows. The Camas team put itself in a position to earn an at-large berth, as only the top two placing teams earn automatic berths.

Amy-Eloise Neale, from Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish, won the meet in a time of 17 minutes, 49 seconds. Neale avenged her loss to Katie Knight of Spokane in last week’s high school state meet. Neale beat Knight by nine seconds on Saturday as Knight clocked in 17:58. Efraimson followed at 18:23.

The Glacier Peak team, running under the club name of Snohomish XC Club, placed second to Summit XC Club of Bend, Ore. Summit scored 103 points and Snohomish had 117. Camas placed fourth behind Bozeman, Mont., with 155 points.

As this is not a sanctioned high school event, teams compete under club names. Camas beat Glacier Peak for the Washington 3A team title last week. But Camas did not run as well on Saturday in Boise.

Camas’ No. 2 runner, Austen Reiter finished in 30th place in 19:31. However, Megan Napier, the team’s normal No. 3 runner who finished right behind Reiter at state last week, struggled to finish in 98th place in 20:43, finishing as Camas’ No. 6 runner.

Alissa Pudlitzke has a solid race, finishing 32nd in 19:33. Also scoring for Camas was Lindsay Wourms (61st, 20:12) and Camille Parsons (82nd, 20:31).

Teams that place third and fourth at the regionals are placed in a pool, from which four at-large teams from all the regional races nationwide will be selected to the Nike Cross Nationals.