A Brief History of Washington HS Cross Country

As with many sports in Washington, cross country's state tournament presence was born out of an invitational meet.  The first boys meet was held in 1959 at Seattle's Green Lake park and was run at a distance of 2 miles.  In 1963 the meet organizers upped the course length to 2.3 miles, and the final invitational was run at 3.0 miles.  WIAA sanctioned the first state meet in 1969, and ran it at Seattle's Evergreen High School from then until 1982.  The course length was dropped to 2.5 miles from 1969 to 1977, then back up to 3.0 miles in 1978.

While the boys were enjoying their state meet, organizers put together a girls invitational for the 1973 season.  The 1.5 mile meet was run in Granger in '73 and '74, before WIAA sanctioned the first state meet - a 2.0 mile race -  at Lake Sammamish Park in 1975.  The girls joined the boys at Evergreen in 1976, running at 2.0 miles from '76-'79 before joining the boys at 3.0 miles in 1980.

From 1980 on, the boys and girls events were at identical locations and course lengths.  The meet moved east of the mountains in 1983 to Spokane's Hangman Valley and resided there for three seasons.  It made a brief journey to the Olympic Peninsula in 1986 and 1987, when it was run at Port Townsend's Fort Warden Park.  In 1988 the meet took up residence at Pasco's Sun Willows Golf Course, where it continues to uphold its early November tradition.  The only change in the meet since that move was the transition from 3.0 miles to 5k in length in 1997.

About the Pages:

For all meets prior to Sun Willows (e.g. 1959-1987) the entire meet data is grouped onto one page.  From 1988 on results are separated out by classification and gender.  To view a results page, select the appropriate choices then press the "Go!" button.

WIAA thanks John Crawford and Mike Hubbard for researching and providing this valuable data.

1959-1987
Select year only.  Results for all races will be displayed for that year.

1988-90, 95, 96
Select year, classification, and gender.  A and B ran as combined classification.

1991-94
Select year, classification and gender.  A and B ran as separate classifications.

1997 - 2003
Select year, classification, and gender.  A and B ran as combined classification.

2004-05
Select year, classification, and gender.  A and B ran as combined classification in girls, separately for boys

2006-07
Select year, classification, and gender.  1B and 2B ran as combined classification in both boys and girls
 

Wheelchair
Select year only.  Results for all races will be displayed for that year.