Beaver girls now have the depth

By Dean Wong

In cross-country, the Ballard Beavers may have the depth to finally make it to state after narrowly falling short the past two seasons.

While both the boys and girls teams lost runners to graduation, there is plenty of young talent with the potential to accumulate team points at meets.

A key factor in the Beaver's chances is that other top KingCo schools have graduated many athletes in cross-country and Ballard hopes to take advantage of that.

Head Coach Bruce Drager said other teams have lost their star runners with few good ones coming back from last year.

"We will be in the mix with quality runners," said Drager.

For the boy's, Alex Barkley is back as the fastest Beaver. He went to state last year.

"He's the top guy. There's a bunch of guys that could run with Alex," said Drager.

Andrew Hamilton and his brother Aaron are expected to provide speed. Luke McClure and Kramer Frye also have the potential to contribute.

Last week the boy's team, coached by assistant Bob Mirenzi was still evaluating at some freshman who are trying to crack the varsity roster. Mirenzi has recruited some sprinters from the track team to bolster the lineup.

"We have a ton of guys, 10 to 15 who can be competing for varsity positions," said Drager.

On the girl's side, Drager said they will be very good, but they face stiff competition in KingCo where seven of the top 10 girls in the state go to school.

"We'll be racing against the state's best every meet," said Drager.

Ballard's top girl, Bridget Berg, is back to lead the way again.

Emily Cardarelli, who spent last year attending an east coast school, is back at Ballard.

"She is running strong. We needed her to come back," said Drager.

"She is back and will be good," Drager said of Ribika Hailenarium.

Ballard has10 girls who could run the various cross-country courses under 21 minutes. "If you have six to seven you will be competitive," said Drager.

Redmond and Eastlake are the dominating teams in KingCo. Ballard will fight for the third or fourth spot in the league. Four teams will advance to state.

"It's going to be a good season. I am excited. Both will be good competitive teams," said Drager.

Dean Wong may be reached at 783.1244 or deanw@robinsonnews.com