Inglemoor High senior Tansey Lystad seems to never stop running, she laughed.
The morning after winning the 4A state cross-country championship, she was set for another run at the Redmond Watershed.
On Saturday afternoon, Lystad saved her best prep race for last with a finish of 17 minutes, 44.4 seconds on the 3.1-mile course at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
“It was pretty exciting. I felt like I was gonna have that one big race, that one ‘pop,'” said Lystad, adding that the victory feeling was better than she expected. “It was the race I needed to get me focused (on upcoming postseason events). Now I know I can run with the best. It’s a confidence-booster.”
She’ll run in the high-profile Nike Cross Regionals this Saturday in Boise, Idaho, and her third Washington/Oregon Border Clash Nov. 21 in Portland. (With a top-five performance at Nike regionals, she’ll qualify for Nike Cross Nationals Dec. 4 in Portland.)
Saturday was her fourth state appearance — and best finish in her first season with Inglemoor. Last year, she took third, and she took fifth as a sophomore and qualified as a freshman — all as a Juanita runner.
Earlier this year, Lystad held 4A Kingco’s best time of 18:13, but she far surpassed that mark on Saturday at Willows.
“It’s my favorite course, and it was nice to get back on it,” she said, noting that running on the golf course is nice, as well as the mostly even terrain.
And the absence of rain during the race is always a plus.
“At the start, one raindrop came and hit me in the eye, but there was nothing after that,” Lystad said. “It was a fantastic, perfect day.”
At the first mile mark, Lystad went hard and put a 10-meter gap on the pack and held that pace to the end.
Eastlake freshman Anastasia Kosykh took second to Lystad in 17:50.2. Also for the girls, Inglemoor’s Kyra Burke placed 45th.
On the boys’ side, Inglemoor’s Colin O’Neil took 26th and Ryan Rinaldi took 88th; Bothell’s Nathan Conrad placed 124th.
* In 1A action at Willows, Cedar Park Christian’s Sally Larson took 11th in 20:15 to lead the Eagle girls to a sixth-place team finish. Other Eagles were Erin Beezhold, Sydney Stolmeier, Kate Dedo, Emily Lovern, Rachel Kirk and Morgan Green.
Cedar Park’s Andrew Dedo took 40th in the boys’ race.
