Both the HMS Girls and Boys Cross Country teams finished atop their respective fields at the 65th Steve Maas Run-a-Ree held at Hudson's Bay High School on Friday, Sept. 11.

Before we get to the results, let's first look at how cross country meets are scored: Interscholastic Cross Country meets count both individual finishes and team performance. For team scoring, points are awarded to each team's individual runners equal to the position in which they cross the finish line (first place gets 1 point, second place gets 2 points, etc). The Run-a-Ree scoring sums the finishing positions of the team's top 5 runners in both the boys' and girls' divisions. The team with the lowest score wins the team title.

The HMS Girls scored only 39 points - which, again, is a good thing!

Finishing in the Girls' Top 5 were: Meredith Fogg (11:53), Harper Muhonen (12:28), Emma Pomar (12:48), Hazel Johnson (14:05), and Ruby Johnson (14:07).

The outcome was the same on the Boys side - but the path was different.

Whereas the girls were separated by 4 points from the 2nd place team, the boys initially TIED with La Center. With the score tied 50-50 it came down to a tiebreaker: The teams' average times. Well, HMS beat out LaCenter by just a few seconds, proving that - indeed - every second matters.

Congratulations to the Boys' Top 5: Nash Burnham (11:38), Colton Timperley (11:57), Logan Isle (12:11), Owen Frey (12:14), and Maddox Ervin (13:02).

And congratulations to ALL Hornets who represented HMS at the Run-a-Ree. Best of luck at your next meet on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at Washougal. Go Hornets!

The HMS Cross Country team is coached by Janell Morley and James Vettrus along with volunteer coaches Karen Johnson and Sabrina Brown.