The course at Salt Creek Recreation Area may be a few miles from her racecourses in Sequim, but SHS senior Riley Pyeatt raced like she’s quite at home Saturday morning.

Pyeatt cruised to a win in the 57-member girls varsity race at the Salt Creek Invitational on Sept. 18, finishing the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, 9.2 seconds — more than 20 seconds head of runner-up Alauna Cartsens of Shelton.

Sophomore teammate Kate Bloomenrader finished the course in 10:29, good for 12th overall. SHS senior Aidyn Shingleton was 37th (23:41) and Sequim ninth-grader Nikoline Upike was 45th, finishing in 25:31.

On the boys’ side, Sequim’ Colby Ellefson placed fifth in the boys’ varsity race. In his first Salt Creek race, the sophomore clocked in at 16:33, about a minute behind overall champ Kelton Gagnon, a Klahowya senior. Port Angeles junior Jack Gladfelter was second (15:36) and Rider Joshua Gavin was fourth (16:30).

Sequim junior Calem Klinger was 43rd (18:48) in the 65-runner boys varsity race.

Neither Sequim varsity squad had enough runners to qualify a team score. Port Angeles edged Nathan Hale for the boys’ team title (out of eight qualifying teams) while Shelton took top team honors in the girls’ race.

In junior varsity races, Sequim’s top boy finisher was junior Mirek Skov, was clocked in at 20:19, good for seventh place. SHS freshman Aspen Goldner was 20th in the girls’ JV race.

In 2018, Pyeatt — the a freshman — placed second at Salt Creek behind rival Lauren Larson. A year later, Pyeatt was third behind Larson and Klahowya’s Alyssa Becker. Last year’s event was canceled because of COVID restrictions.

Coming up

Sequim is back in Port Angeles for a league meet on Sept. 22.

The Wolves host a league meet at the Dungeness Recreation Area on Sept. 29.