Papermakers bring home 4A district cross country titles

BATTLE GROUND — A recent visit to Lewisville Park went much better for the Camas Papermakers than last week.

Kate Westfall and Cohen Butler swept to individual titles at the Class 4A District 4 championship meet, and the Papermakers also captured both team titles.

“That’s definitely been the highlight of today,” Butler said of the Camas boys’ win over Battle Ground. “Last week … we had dual meet against them. We lost by like five points. We had one of our runners have not as good of a race. He had a great race today. Our whole team ran really well today, and we got them.”

Butler led the way, winning the boys race in 15 minutes, 25 seconds as the Papermakers had their top five runners finish under 16:46 — Payton Jones (16:33), Andrew Helt (16:35), Mason Strogen (16:37) and Keane Cooper (16:45).

That helped Camas outdistance Battle Ground 28-38. Lord King Nana-Badu-Weah (15:44) was second and Trae Copper (16:13) was third for the Tigers.

The Camas girls breezed to a team win behind Westfall, beating out Union 27-58.

But Westfall avenged a loss to Battle Ground’s Sophia Rogers, who won the league dual last week at Lewisville.

“I won so I’m really happy about that,” said Westfall, who finished in 18:45. “But it definitely hurt. I had to push really hard on the hill.”

Westfall let Rogers set the pace for the first two miles before making her move in the final mile, which starts the course’s biggest hill climb.

“I knew going in that I was going to let whoever decided to take the lead just lead, and I would follow them for the first two miles,” Westfall said. “And then I would just attack the hill as hard as I could, which I definitely did, so I was excited.”

Rogers placed second in 19:03, followed by Union’s Sara Thompson in 19:07.

Westfall said it was the type of race that she hopes serves as a springboard for the rest of the postseason, starting with the Westside Classic bi-district meet in Tacoma next week and then the state meet.

Butler also has his eyes on the state meet. The senior posted one of the best times in the state this fall when he ran a personal best of 14:36 at the Nike Hole in the Wall Invitational on a very rainy day in Arlington on Oct. 11.

He said he definitely feels like he can go faster.

“Even at Hole in the Wall, those were crappy conditions to run in,” Butler said. “So I’m super excited to see (what I can do) at state this year. I’ve had some good state performances, but I definitely don’t think I’ve hit that peak performance at state yet. I think this year will hopefully be a standout year for me.”