The Mercer Island girls and boys cross country teams raced in the SeaKing District meet on Thursday, Oct. 25 at Lower Woodland Park in Seattle.

The girls team finished fifth overall with 115 points, qualifying as a team for the state meet. The boys team finished in ninth place with 202 points. Liberty won the girls meet with 65 total points and Nathan Hale took first in the boys event with 43 points. The top five teams qualified for state and the top 25 individual runners on teams which did not finish in the top five earned spots at state.

For the Islander boys team, Matt Wotipka will run at state, finishing 19th at Districts with a 16:28.94 time. Eric Schulz finished in 34th in 16:48, while Daniel Mayer was 39th in 16:54 and Nathan Cummings was 57th in 17:21. Dylan Lesko finished in 17:41 for 67th place, Nathan Gallatin was 77th overall in 17:58 and Kyle Weiss was 80th in 18:09.

In the girls race, all of the Islanders qualified as a team. Individually, Alida Scalzo was ninth in 19:29, while Alexa Bauman was 13th in 19:33. Linden Elggren finished in 20:08 for 25th place, Cecelia Rosenman was 35th in 20:46 and Rachel Van Gelder finished in 39th place in 20;51. Ella Green finished with a 22:23 time for 74th place.

The 3A state cross country meet will take place on Nov. 3 at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco, Wash.