Senior Kylen Johnson and sophomore Kyle MacDonald delivered the speed while senior Kristen Watkins persevered. Together with their West Seattle High School cross country teammates, they offered a glimpse into a promising season Friday afternoon at Lower Woodland.

The girls, in fact, made history. It takes five runners to tally a team score in cross country. With Bishop Blanchet's girls cheering her across the finish line, Watkins became that fifth West Seattle runner. In so doing, she completed the first girls' team score for West Seattle this decade. Four of her teammates, of course, had already finished, led by a sterling performance from team captain Johnson. In her first test against Bishop Blanchet's awesome cross country machine, Johnson stung her opponent by placing second in the All-Metro caliber time of 20:41.

Filling the spots between Johnson and Watkins were soph Sarah Austin (10th), one stride ahead of notable frosh Thea Nauss (11th), and gallant soph Hannah Sox (16th). In this low-score-wins-sport, West Seattle's girls relegated Eastside Catholic to third, 56 points to 59, behind Bishop Blanchet's winning total of 21. In a non-scoring effort for Ingraham High, West Seattle resident Ellen Teel closed only a second behind Nauss.

The story of the boys' season opener belongs to MacDonald and his freshman teammate Cooper Sinai-Yunker. In a take-notice performance, MacDonald raced to eleventh place in 19:04, bettering his personal record for the Lower Woodland course by 71 seconds. Sinai-Yunker had an auspicious debut, finishing sixteenth in 20:29. Rounding out the team scoring were team captain Jacob Nauss (17th), Jack Hilton (18th), and Chandler Sapp (19th). Bishop Blanchet won the meet with 18 points, followed by Eastside Catholic's 46 and WS' 81.