PASCO – Colfax’s Morgan Willson pulled away to a state 1B/2B girls cross country championship victory over Oroville’s Sierra Speiker on Saturday, Nov. 5, reclaiming the state title that Speiker had kept Willson from defending in 2010.

Willson, the 2009 state champ and 2010 runner-up, finished with a time of 18:36, identical to her state title run two years ago.

Speiker was second in 19:25, fighting off a pair of Northwest Christian (Colbert) runners for the runner-up spot.

Zack Speiker, meanwhile, finished his breakout season with a third place run in 16:33, improving over his 2010 state appearance by 1:40 and 42 places.

The Hornet girls finished seventh as a team, with Katie Tietje (56th, 24:25), Lily Hilderbrand (60th, 24:48), Lisa Hartvig (61st, 24:55) and Ali Miller (62nd, 25:08) competing.

Tri-Cities Prep won the boys 1B/2B team title, while Northwest Christian (Lacey) was the girls champion.

Lucas Graham of Northwest Christian (Lacey) won the boys’ state title with a run of 16:17.

Among other area boys teams, Republic finished fourth and Liberty Bell finished ninth. Liberty Bell was led by Liam Daily (8th, 16:51) while Republic was paced by freshman Duncan Forsman (13th, 17:07).

Lake Roosevelt’s Kim Barry, a three-event girls state track champion last spring, took seventh in 20:27.