By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
Sounds like maybe a late night affected Evergreen Wolverines' junior, Marques Chacon, who took first place at the 2A sub-district meet last week but a week later, against the same runners who he beat in sub-districts, Chacon finished third at the Westside Classic Cross-Country Championships district meet at the American Lake Golf Course Saturday.
"I felt really tired," said Chacon. "I was up until 2 a.m."
Doing what? X-Box, video games, fooling around on Youtube or Facebook?
"He was up doing homework," said Ernesto Chacon, 21, his big brother, standing nearby.
"Yeah," said Marques Chacon.
For Marques Chacon, studies are important. Afterall, he is a 4.0 student at Evergreen High School.
But doing homework, on a big race night? Is that logical?
"'Cuz I want to get an 'A,'" said Marques Chacon, whose twin brother, Matthew, finished seventh in 16:25.15 to Marques' 16:11.30 time.
Both raced well enough, by far, to reach next weekend's 3A state championship meet at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. The top 30 individuals qualify for state and Marques, third, and Matthew, seventh, met no problem there as both received ribbons up on the podium for the awards ceremony.
Marques raced both runners who he beat just last weekend at the sub-district meet. This time Sammamish's Nick Martin, 16:00.27, and Liberty-Issaquah's Andrew Cooper, 16:01.35, finished ahead of him. And American Lake's Course is considered tougher running than Fort Steilacoom's sub-district one, according to Marques' brother, Matthew.
So this was just one of those days of tiredness and not having a best day on a day that didn't really matter that much because state is what matters.
"I beat them last week, but they just got me this time," said Marques Chacon.
So Marques Chacon just seems like he was holding out a little, for state, plus, the tiredness might have got him, too, because of his choosing to do the right priority thing of homework the night before that kept him up well past midnight, with his race scheduled for 11:40 a.m. the next day, and White Center is close to an hour from the city of Lakewood where the Westside Classic was held.
So rough night, early morning. Doesn't, for sure, want that to happen next time around, at state this coming weekend.
"I just am going to try and get them (Cooper and Martin) back next week, make sure I get my homework done earlier because I don't want to be tired," said Marques Chacon. "I don't want to have an excuse if I lose. I want it to be my best race."
Brother Matthew knocked three seconds off his time recorded last week at sub-districts (16:28.94), but it sounded like he wasn't happy with that after his district race.
"Oh, man, that was a horrible race," said Matthew Chacon, after finishing the race a couple minutes removed from walking through the long single-file line, bordered with ribbons and flags, that preceded runners giving a white ticket to an official at the end of the walk. which they received right after the finish from another official. Top six teams go on to state to complement the 30 individuals making it, so everything is needed done quickly as runners go through the finish and into the chute, often very close finishing in time, on to the next.
Why did Matthew Chacon say it was a horrible race for him? He took time off his sub-district race?
"No, not that, it was a tough course, lots of hills, and, a loop so you had to go through them twice," said Matthew Chacon.
So, a good race for Matthew Chacon, not horrible at all. And, he was with a great motivation as anyone who is a twin will understand.
Trying to keep up with Marques?
"Yeah, definitely," said Matthew Chacon. "I wanted to start out and not start out too fast, just keep my brother in my sights."
And was big brother, Marques, seen in front the whole race?
"He left me a little bit, but I picked up the pace," said Matthew Chacon. "The whole race I felt like I was speeding up, not slowing down."
And Marques Chacon's attention did not go unnoticed on his little brother, Matthew, but first something on that word, "little."
"Little," because Marques came through the birth canal two minutes before Matthew.
"He always says, 'You can beat me at any other thing, but you can't beat me at life,'" said Matthew Chacon.
Big brother, Ernesto, older than both the twins by four years, is one who spurs on the twins' competition at just not everything in running but in everything in life.
"He likes to pit me and Matthew against each other," said Marques. "I think that's why we always compete."
In this district competition, Matthew competed well, improving over the week earlier SPSL sub-district meet, and Marques noticed. Matthew was 30 seconds behind Marques in the sub-district meet, 15:59 to 16:28 on that course. But, in this districts race, Matthew made up some of that gap, with his 16:25 time to Marques' 16:11. So, a 14 second improvement for Matthew over his "big" brother, Marques.
"He did good, getting closer," said Marques Chacon, who added that, for his race, since he didn't need to keep his sights on his brother for motivation, he was finding his source of strength from different avenues.
"Just not paying attention to who runs around me," said Marques Chacon, of the biggest thing he does to "run his race."
Evergreen coach Dan Matthias thought good of all that running Matthew and Marques did, not to mention senior Ryan Carlstrom, third on his team, and, junior Edwin Arroyo, fourth on this team, PR'd with a 73rd and 18:42.69 time.
"Good job, Matthew," said Matthias. "You went crazy."
And others for the Wolverines, went "crazy," too, in Matthias' mind. And, crazy is as crazy does, and in this case it's good to be crazy.
"I wasn't expecting any PR's (personal records, or, best times) today, but we got at least four of them," said Matthias.
Carlstrom ran the course in 18:05.77, a personal best time he said for himself in cross country.
"By 18 seconds," said Carlstrom, smiling.
Henk Ufkes, who received a muscle injury while running a month ago, would have greatly helped the Wolverines in getting a state shot but that didn't work out for Ufkes nor his team. But Ufkes, a senior, was there in street clothes, supporting his teammates, including Matthew Chacon during the race.
"Did you hear me yelling, 'Keep the gap, close,'" said Ufkes.
"Yeah," said Matthew Chacon.
And Ufkes had encouraging words for Carlstrom to hear after his race.
"I saw him finish from way on the other side of the course," said Ufkes, talking to Carlstrom after the race. "He was killing it."
And Carlstrom was hoping to be smiling for his team, too, getting to state, but, they took eighth place and missed qualifying by two spots.
"I was hoping we would go to state as a team," said Carlstrom, who took 50th overall, third best on his team, but, with making state, individually, meaning he needed to have moved up 20 spots.