Camas High School (CHS) sophomore cross country runner Evan Jenkins knew he had an uphill battle to win the Westside Classic, held Nov. 2 at Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place, Washington.
It turned out that a big hill helped Jenkins win the race.
“I definitely surprised myself,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it. At first I was thinking top five was my goal, but I ended up winning.”
Jenkins knew he was good at running up hills, so he took a quick lead, a strategy that most coaches frown upon.
“It was really risky,” Jenkins said. “This race is known as one where runners start out slow, (but) I didn’t really want to keep it slow, so I figured I might as well go, and if they follow me, they follow me.”
The lead pack of runners on his tail included CHS teammates Sam Geiger, Austin Weese, Luc Utheza and Spencer Twyman. Other runners caught up with Jenkins at about the 2-mile mark, but at that point he used the hills to his advantage and started to pull away.