BATTLE GROUND — Both are seniors who have run some of the area’s fastest times this cross country season. Both didn’t want to leave Lewisville Park on Wednesday without checking off a major goal – District champion. Union’s Bradley Harris and Skyview’s Daphne Evenson took strides toward capping their high school careers in stellar fashion.
Each held off a tough pack of challengers to win at the Class 4A District 4 Cross Country Championships. Harris outlasted defending district champ Cohen Butler of Camas. His time of 15 minutes, 50 seconds gave him a victory by 10 seconds and was his fifth 5,000-meter time under 16 minutes this season.
After finishing second at last year’s district championships, Harris said he’d been looking forward to Wednesday’s race for a year. “I’m a competitor,” Harris said. “That’s my drive.
I was like, it’s Round 2. It’s time to go and I’m here to compete.” Harris and Butler weren’t the only talented runners in a field that included five of last year’s top six finishers.
Battle Ground sophomore Lord King Nana-Badu-Weah and Butler pushed the pace in the first mile. Harris laid in wait, but knew he couldn’t spend long in third place. “If I didn’t go I was done,” Harris said.
“Mentally I would have been like ‘I can’t catch them. I have to move now.’” Harris surged ahead during the second mile and held a slight lead heading up the race’s lone hill.
“When I got to the top I could hear them behi.