Three years ago, the Arlington’s Boys Cross Country team horribly ended their season in last place at the Bi-District meet. Two years ago, they didn’t improve much just getting 14th out of 16 at the Bi-District meet. Last year, they got again very slightly improved to12th out of 16. And this last weekend they made the drastic jump and Won the District title.

After the Bi-District meet last year, Nate Beamer, Matt Taylor, Pieter Andrews, Zac Cushman, Jacob Fankhauser, Caleb Smith, and Michael Barene made it their goal to be District champs no matter what. During track they had the shock of finding out they’d have to race 3A instead of 4A. But the 8 boys did not let it phase them. During the summer KJ Mullin and Eric Acero made giant improvements to make the best team AHS XC has ever seen.

During their regular season, the boys were frustrated by not meeting the goals of winning any of the Saturday invites. But they trusted their coaches and knew that when it mattered they’d rise to the occasion.

Throughout the regular season, Glacier Peak beat them in every meet but as the season progressed, they slowly closed the gap. At the Wesco North meet our boys had their first sign of real confidence. They had gotten in striking distance with the Wesco South giants by only being 5 points behind them in a head to head race.

After the miles of trails and all of the hard work, it finally happened. By a narrow margin of 3 points, the 9 boys got the goal they waited so long to get and took the District championship. For the first time since 1977, a boys XC team is going to represent Arlington High School at the State championships.

But the season isn’t over. They are striving to have a top 4 finish at state. This is a story of hard work and dedication that has not yet come to an end, and won’t be any time soon. This is the birth of a dynasty. This is Arlington High School boys Cross Country.