TACOMA — It took a little longer than she might have hoped, but Allison Cutting is back on top.
The Sequim long-distance runner claimed her second Class 2A state title more than a year after earning her first, winning the 3,200-meter girls race at the state track and field meet at Mount Tahoma High School on Thursday.
The Sequim senior blew the field away with a time of 11 minutes, 4.52 seconds, nearly nine seconds ahead of the closest challenger.
“I was shooting for gold, and it was just a huge relief to come out where I had been my junior year,” Cutting said.
Cutting won the 2A state cross country title as a junior in 2008 before suffering through various injuries and setbacks.
Between an Achilles tendon injury and a hip flexor, Cutting missed most of her 2009 track season and struggled through last fall’s cross country schedule.
After making changes in her training schedule during the winter, she was able to get back on track.
“My faith really helped carry me through that time,” Cutting said. “I just wanted it really badly to come out strong in my last high school season.”
That certainly showed on Thursday.
Cutting entered the race with the top 3,200 time in 2A, then proceeded to run like it once the starting gun was fired.
“The first mile I just kind of wanted to feel out the other runners and see what they were going to do,” said Cutting, who is going to run for Seattle Pacific next year.
“I was sitting between second and fourth [early on]. Then when we came through at the first mile we were off by a few seconds on the pace I was wanting, so I decided to take [the lead].
“I just had it in my mindset that I was going to stay in that spot until the end.”
That’s exactly what she did, fighting off challenges from Kingston’s Marina Roberts and Anacortes’ Maren Hanson for the title.
Cutting will get another chance to win a state crown in the 1,600 on Saturday.
“Around lap seven, she just took off and blew them away on the last lap,” Sequim coach Brad Moore said.
“To be able to come back, have a little bit of adversity in cross country . . . and finish strong like that is fantastic. We’re all very happy for her.”
Cutting’s first-place finish at state is the Sequim track team’s fifth in six years.
Anna LaBeaume won the shot put last year and will try to defend her title today.
Kincaid Nichols (’08), Stephanie Marcy (’07) and Brian Savage (’05) also won state crowns for Sequim.
“This last decade has just been amazing for us,” Moore said. “We’ve just had some fabulous kids. They are so much fun to coach.”
Stevenson second
Cutting wasn’t the only North Olympic Peninsula athlete making waves at the state meet at Mount Tahoma on Thursday.
Port Angeles’ Ceci Stevenson took second in the 3A girls high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 5 inches.
Roughriders coach Dwayne Johnson said he wasn’t sure when the last time a Port Angeles track athlete finished that high at state.
“She came to compete,” Johnson said about Stevenson, who was also 12th in the 100 hurdles in 15.79. “That was just outstanding. We’re ecstatic about that.”
Port Angeles’ John Christian ran a personal best in the 3A boys 3,200, finishing 12th in 9:28.79.
It was Christian’s fifth consecutive appearance at a state event, having also qualified in swimming and cross country going back to the winter of 2009.
The Riders also got 12th-place finishes from Alison Maxwell in the 3,200 (11:29) and the 4-by-400 relay team.
Kathryn Moseley, Chanda Romney, Abbie Moseley and Ceci Stevenson all ran that race in a time of 4:04.
The Sequim boys reached the finals in the 2A 4-by-400 relay, while the Sequim girls 4-by-400 relay just missed, finishing ninth with a time of 4:07.
It was the second-fastest time in school history.