Don't stop believin'.

That's the Journey song that played to start the first of three races, and the Thomas Jefferson girls cross country team obviously did not let a little blip of another school taking their limelight a couple years stop them from believing they could reclaim their power as the South Puget Sound League Central champion.

And they are!

TJ's girls beat Todd Beamer, 25-32 (low point total wins) in a dual meet, all the while the TJ boys team made its case for, perhaps, a season coming (and ending) unlike any other --getting to state -- with its solid 17 minute range times and faster for its top five point scoring runners in a 21-34 dual meet win over the Titans in the 3.1 mile course at Celebration Park Wednesday.

Girls rule at this point for TJ in cross country.

"We are No. 1 in league, and we haven't had that since 2006," said Lacey Printz, who took second place overall.

Tahoma took over TJ's traditional stance of that league champion spot a couple years ago.

And now let's kind of quote the title of a song by “38 Special.”

The league title is “Back where it belongs.”

Printz should have probably finished first individually on this dual meet race day against their Beamer rival. But she took a wrong turn just before the stretch run of a 100 yards to go in the race and she ended up fourth place overall. Printz ended up behind Beamer's Taylor Kartes, third, and, TJ teammate, Monica Jaenicke, second.

Beamer sophomore, Sara Mussa was second, breathing down Printz's neck, coming on strong in the end, closing ground, and, only took first when Printz went off course. Honestly, it truly looked like Printz would have held on for the win had she not took a wrong turn as the 10 yards difference going into the homestretch between Mussa and Printz looked too much a distance for Mussa to gain.

Mussa's a gamer, though, so that thought may be not right.

And Kartes a few seconds back of Mussa and Printz (and Jaenicke) would certainly have faith in her teammate.

"She was going to catch her," said Kartes, a Beamer senior, a team captain and a state participant last year for both cross country last November and track last spring, where she showed her repertoire of running talent by taking eighth place in the two-lap, 800 meter run.
And, with that said from her teammate, one can guess that Mussa would get to saying something of like caliber.

"Yes, I was feeling strong," said Mussa.

Well, no one will ever know...until the All City meet, that is, where the two schools will race head-to-head again and don't discount Jaenicke and, of course, the ever-competitive Kartes.

It should be some fiery fun and competitive race indeed at all city, and, don't discredit or discount Federal Way and Decatur with their runners, too, in this friendly get together of our four 4A schools.

The boys’ all city race should be competitive at the top, too.

But, speaking of this girls race, the question remains: What was Printz thinking, missing that turn?

"I don't know what happened," said Printz, who was in tears afterward. Embarrassed as well as probably upset she let a Beamer girl beat her. Two Beamer girls.

"You got to have these things happen to you," said Printz. "Humility is a good thing."

Her teammates were nearby her afterward, putting hands on her shoulders, comforting her, like boys second place finisher Chase Braxmeyer, who was the only boy from TJ's team to go on to state last year, as a sophomore.

Others, too, said words, like Jaenicke, on the still visibly shaken Printz several minutes after the girls race conclusion.

"You OK," said Jaenicke, hands on her teammate. "It's OK."

TJ coach Paul Ruston agreed with the thought of it being a lot better to miss a turn in a dual meet with little significance in the big scheme of things rather than the SPSL league meet coming up in about three weeks, or, worse yet, the district meet after that, or, after that, of course, would be state.

"Absolutely," said Ruston, a longtime coach now close to a decade, along with Lori Mathews, of this TJ program that is strength after strength seasons, including second at state three years ago and fourth and third the years before that in the 2003-2005 time frame.

Last year the Raiders, in the end, were not far off those extremely high places, taking 10th place. Printz was second fastest at state for her team at state and has just carried that momentum through to this season.

Missing the course will be just fine for Printz who knows what to do for the future and who knew her time would have been tops of her career had she not taken a wrong turn.

"I am glad the team managed to pull through," said Printz. "That would have been my best 5k (three mile) time."

All the TJ girls have filled in nicely for the graduated runners helping them get top 10 at state again, those being Vanessa Bennum, Camryn Patrick and Rosemary Angelis.

"The other girls stepped up and improved, a lot," said Ruston.

This was a nice win for the Raiders, who garnered their 25 points via a second from Jaenicke (2 points), a fourth from Printz (4 points), a fifth from Leah Kiyohara (5 points), a sixth from Vanessa Church (6 points), and an eighth from Amanda Ditzhazy (8 points).
Mussa came in first for Beamer in 19:30.

The sophomore was followed by Jaenicke, a senior, in 19:34, and, Kartes crossed at 19:37.

Then Printz, who had to run back up a little hill and go around an 8-foot long log and down the hill again, took fourth in 20:13.

Kiyohara, sister of senior older sister Hannah, a great basketball player and fastpitch sensational shortstop enroute to Louisville on a scholarship, took fifth as that sophomore timed in at 20:26.

Church, a sophomore TJ runner, rushed in right after in 20:28. Next was Beamer junior, Lauren Thomas, seventh, finishing at 21:52, and quickly next came Ditzhazy, 21:55 -- the fifth and final Raider needing to cross for a five-runner tally of 25 points. Even if Ditzhazy had not crossed next, the next runner to cross would have also been a TJ runner, sealing the deal. Kelsey Beer was ninth at 22:08.

Beamer's runners were within reach though as six seconds in back of Beer was Heather Hallstrom (22:14), then Danielle Backman (22:16), then Caitlin Moore (22:18) followed all closely together across the finish line.

But this was a race that told the finish, for all practical purposes, of who will be the 2009 SPSL Central champ -- TJ. TJ must still race against FW but that is a cross country team that should not threaten TJ in a dual this season.

"This was for the league title, undefeated," said Ruston, noting the FW scenario that still must play out, technically speaking.

But this TJ program is just plain the finest in this land at the team level. Individually, sure, don't count out Mussa and Kartes, who Ruston admitted are “terrific runners.”

Kartes and Mussa agreed that they and their girls team should continue to drop time.

"As a whole, we feel we are going to get a lot stronger, mentally and physically," said Kartes. "Even though these meets are important, it's about the postseason and I think us both will do amazingly good."

And, speaking as a whole for her team, Kartes added, "Our girls team is really starting to come together. We are getting better. We will give A-R and TJ a good run for their money at districts."

"Yeah," said Mussa, adding of this particular meet. "We were really pushed by their (TJ) team. TJ made us go faster."
But team-wise, speaking of tradition the last few years, there just is no team like the TJ team, for girls.

"Everyone in the program is good," said Printz, speaking of her fellow runners and... "Our coaches are really dedicated.”.

So, it's good to be a Raider one more time in a cross country meet for the girls.

For the boys, the Raiders got that one won on this day, too, led by the way-ahead-of-everyone-else running of Jeff Baklund, who touched the line in fine stride at 16:22.

It has been a little bit of a surprise for all seeing Baklund run. Baklund ironically, like his last name hints, had back problems last year that kept Braxmeyer from likely having a teammate go with him to state.

"Jeff didn't have a good year last year," said Ruston. "He's done a lot of running in the off season."

An awful lot.

Baklund said he did race last November at districts, but it was just to be out there trying to help his team.

"I ran with no training to try to help the team," said Baklund.

All that was said above about the good TJ girls team, this could be a year that the boys team gets just as far as the girls: State. "Our goal is to take the guys team to state, the first time ever," Baklund said. "We feel we can do it."

This was a good dual meet team effort for TJ for their boys.

"Best team effort this year," said Baklund.

All of the TJ boys were within 1:04 of each other.

Most coaches probably like to have that team within a little less time of first to last, that is, the first place runner to the fifth place for a team, like around a half a minute difference. So, hopefully, Baklund can pull along his teammates a little closer to him.

Braxmeyer was second for his team and overall, in at 17:02. Then it was Beamer's first runner in, overall third place, being Tom Bowman, 17:07, before TJ got in the fourth place overall with Oscar Iraheta (17:08), and fifth to Luke Martin, 17:12, and, sixth overall, Ben Hogan of TJ, who was the fourth runner across the line for his team in 17:15. The next runner, Jacob Wittman, of Beamer, came across at 17:23 for seventh place overall and third for his team. The fifth and final point-scoring runner for TJ was Jacob Thoreson (17:26) taking eighth overall.

"The boys are doing good this year, they have lost two," said Ruston.

This was a fun for all meet set up by Titans head coach Scott Haynes, who announced runners as they came through the two-mile checkpoint individually by name, which was around 50 runners in the races. And then Haynes commentated again as the runners emerged from the corner of the Celebration Park trees on the backside of the soccer fields area en route to the final 'U' loop around to the finish in front of everyone.

Colorful ribbons and a good-sized crowd on the hill watching all the good action.

"This is a lot of fun," said Haynes, handing out race final times in a quick, orderly fashion for first the JV boys and then the JV and varsity girls combined and finally, the varsity boys.

"We’ve got the technology," he said.