Federal Way’s boys are back and the rest of the South Puget Sound League may be in trouble.

The Eagle boys won their opener Wednesday, Sept. 15 by a 19-37 score over Decatur after going winless last year. Federal Way also won on the girls side, 24-31, to complete a sweep.

“This was a good opener,” said Eagles head coach Jean Licari. “The boys did not win any last year, so this was a very good meet for us.”

Also making it qualify as a “good meet” was the weather. Only showers took place during the action, but a downpour came immediately thereafter.

The girls ran first, with the Eagles taking three of the top four finishes.

Jasmine Johnson won the 5-Kilometer event in a time of 17 minutes, 27.90 seconds for Federal Way and Nichole Williams of Decatur came in right behind her in 18:20.00.

Mary Aleshchenko of the Eagles took third in 20:32.00 and Christine Hart finished fourth in 20:48.00.

Decatur captured both fifth and sixth, with Karen Mendez coming in fifth in 21:45.00 and Joy Lintelmann sixth in 21:49.00.

IIxia Martinez of the Eagles placed seventh in 22:30.00, followed by Decatur’s Tara Larson in 22:38.00 and Federal Way’s Janna Umetin in 23:59.00. Rachel Marsh of Decatur crossed the finish line 10th in 24:38.00, ahead of Federal Way’s Mariah Oaks (24.52.00), Decatur’s Ceara Nicosia (24:56.00), Federal Way’s Morgan Robinett (26:07.00) and Federal Way’s Rionna Tisino (29.55.00).

Meron Simon won the boys varsity race in 14:09.80 ahead of Deshawn Williams (14:19.00) and Brandon Thornton (14:31.00).

Connor Adkisson was fourth in 14:41.00 and Decatur teammate Paul Pinkstaff fifth (15:31.00). Alex Tran of Federal Way came in sixth in 15:38.00 with teammate Patrick Crews (15:47.00) and Decatur’s Lloyd Byram (15:50.00) and Junior Choun (15:58.00) close behind.

Nathan Brewster of Federal Way was 10th in 16:00.00 ahead of Ryan Danahoe (16:08.00) and Spencer Vivatson (16:29.00). Isaiah Forward of Federal Way was 13th (16:32.00) and Reid Stuberg of Decatur came in 14th in 19:49.00.

Grayson Wolf led the pack in the junior varsity boys race, coming in with a time of 16:07.30 that would have placed him 11th in the varsity race.

Following immediately in his footsteps were Federal Way teammates Kyle Willis (16:33.00), Nick Picardo (16:46.00), Ben Williamson (17:14.00) and Sheldon Gray (18.42.00).

The Gators grabbed sixth and seventh, ahead of nine-straight finishes for the Eagles.

Jeronimo Ramirez took sixth in 18:45.00 and Preston Yancey snagged seventh in 18:48.00.

The Eagles then snatched up places 9-16.

Garrett Persinger placed eighth in 19:05.00 ahead of Alex Bruell in 19:19.00. Austin Thomas (20:13.00), Greg Aleshchenko (20:12.00), Austin Thomas (20:13.00), Tyler Bjork (20.13.00), Mathias Forward (20:14.00), Trevor Stevens (20:28.00), Patrick Jones (20.44.0) and Colton Feider (20.58.00),

Decatur’s Ryan Thomas secured 17th in 23:24.00 and teammate Steven Skorupa was 18th in 31:30.00 to round out the finishers.

“We had a lot of kids come out this summer and run,” Licari said of how the improvement came about for her two teams. “It was fun. This was a great race.”