UNIVERSITY PLACE — There’s not much you can throw at Cris Violette that he hasn’t already seen in the world of prep cross country.
In his 37 years of coaching at Olympia High School, with over two decades as the girls head coach, he witnessed everything from Jessie McLaughlin’s state title in 2001 to his team’s runner-up finish at the state meet last fall.
But before Saturday, Oct. 31, Violette had never been a part of a district championship team.
The Olympia Bears girls cross country team won the Class 4A District 3 title for the first time under Violette at the Westside Classic at Chambers Creek on Saturday, Oct. 31. They scored 81 points compared to runner-up Tahoma’s 100 points.
“It’s a huge surprise. It’s kind of a big shock. I don’t even know what to really say,” Violette said. “I told them beforehand that our goal was to get to state. Just do what you’ve been doing, and you’ll be fine. I was not expecting this at all. It’s kind of a big feather in their cap right now.”
No Olympia Bear had a better day on the course in the girls race than senior Carolina Schilter, who set a new lifetime-best time with 18 minutes and 41.1 seconds in a second-place finish. She hadn’t topped her previous PR of 18:48.6 since she set it over a year ago on Oct. 11, 2025.
Schilter was part of a big clump of runners that followed district champion Charlotte White of Curtis, and the Olympia senior didn’t foresee a top-three finish until the finish line was within sight, when she surpassed several runners to take second place.
“I don’t think I’ve ever particularly had a very good race here,” Schilter said. “Top three didn’t even cross my mind until 100 meters left in the race. I turned the corner with 100 meters to go and then I saw the other group in front of me, and I was like, ‘I could pass them. They’re right there.’ I’m really happy that it was on this course because I have really despised this course for a long time.”
Olympia received a surprise boost from sophomore Leah Hennen, who hadn’t competed since Oct. 10 due to an injury. She returned at the district meet and finished in 10th place at 18:56.1 in quite the display of toughness. Hennen had previously told Violette that she was going to run at districts no matter what so that she could enter the state meet with her legs underneath her again.
“I told her, ‘You don’t have to do anything spectacular today. Just do the best you can. Don’t feel like you’ve gotta go out and do something courageous or out of this world,’” Violette said of Hennen. “I told her that I’m so proud of her for stepping up. For her to still go under 19 minutes, that’s pretty good.”
Olympia sophomore Gemma Stevick came in 12th place at 19:06.5, and sophomore Caitlin Lanese earned a new PR of 19:32.2 to notch 20th. Senior Gretchen Hillier ran in 20:01.4 for 42nd place, and sophomore Eliza Johnson crossed the finish line in 45th place at 20:06.4.
The headliner may have been Schilter and her PR-breaking runner-up finish for the Bears, but their sophomore class of Hennen, Stevick, Lanese and Johnson, provided the depth necessary to capture the historic district title.
“They’re the whole reason we’re where we’re at right now,” Violette said. “Without that sophomore group, we wouldn’t be the team we are. It’s huge. They’re the nucleus of the team.”
In the boys race, the Olympia boys deployed their annual tradition of choosing their uniform strategy for districts. The tradition started years ago when the Bears were on the cusp of qualifying for state, and they believed that changing their uniforms would make them fly under the radar against teams in pace with them for a state spot.
Despite an unrecognizable uniform with a skeleton tank top on Halloween, there was no mistaking the stride of Olympia sophomore Quenton Lanese, who took home his first career district title with a first-place time of 15:27.6. He was locked step for step with a few runners for a chunk of the race, including Yelm senior Marcos Andujar. Lanese pulled away with less than a mile to go, and he secured his victory by five seconds. He also helped the Olympia boys qualify for state as a team with a seventh-place performance.
“We’re all super happy. We knew we’d be able to if we all had good races,” Lanese said. “We all said that if we qualify for state, the whole team is gonna have to buzz our hair off.”
Andujar was Yelm’s top boys runner in fifth place at 15:43.0, while senior Peter Robbins set a new PR of 16:03.2 to finish in 12th. Olympia senior Jack McDurmon also nabbed a PR at 16:27.6 to finish in 26th, and sophomore James Levitt’s PR of 16:43.8 landed him in 44th.
In the girls race, Yelm senior Deejay Taylor shattered the school record, finishing in third place at 18:42.6. Mackenzie Bachmeier’s 2011 Westside Classic run of 18:48.8 stood for 15 years before Taylor rewrote the history books. Taylor is now one of three Tornados to complete a 5K in under 19 minutes, joining Bachmeier and Kailey Slevin.
Taylor’s previous PR was 19:10.3.
“Today, I woke up with this fire, this excitement. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so excited for a meet, and sometimes nerves can get a little hard to suppress,” she said. “I actually did what I wanted to today, more than I thought I could even when I woke up and felt great today. I had envisioned it all week. I was seeded 21st. My goal was 15th, and my goal was to stick with Carolina (Schilter). I just kept repeating my goals all morning.”
Yelm senior Amaya Brown will join Taylor in Pasco as she qualified for state with a new PR of 19:53.9, placing 31st.
The state meet will be held at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco on Saturday, Nov. 7.
