She had to run an astonishing 40 seconds faster than ever before on the 3.1-mile Lower Woodland course, but West Seattle High School senior Stephanie Honan found the reserves to cling to 31st place in the Metro League Championship cross country meet last Thursday.

Honan needed to finish among the top 35 to qualify for the Sea-King District meet this Thursday at Lake Sammamish State Park.

The West Seattle High boys' team achieved a smaller success. For the first time this decade, the team finished better than last or next-to-last in the championship meet. However, even with personal course records from each of its top four runners, West Seattle managed only 9th, ahead of Cleveland and Chief Sealth.

Juniors Joey Domingues (50th) and Gregor Elgee (51st) were followed by freshman Kyle MacDonald (55th) and sophomore Jacob Nauss (57th). The team's fifth scoring finisher was sophomore Jack Hilton (63d).

Among West Seattle's scoring runners, Elgee lopped the most time, 20 seconds, off his previous best. Domingues finished first on the team for the fifth time in five races. MacDonald, the freshman, finished fourth among only seven freshmen, league-wide, competing in the varsity event.

Rounding out the varsity team for West Seattle were junior Philip Solomon and sophomore Ron Thompson. With no seniors on the varsity, this young corps should be able to climb the Metro ladder and eclipse Ingraham next year.