Matthew C. Perry's Jane Williams' time of 18 minutes, 12.4 seconds leads all DODEA-Pacific girls runners. (Kevin Rossiter/Special to Stripes)
URUMA, Okinawa – Brad Cramer lived this scenario five years ago, when the Matthew C. Perry cross country team had a strong boys and girls runner who each won their respective Far East Division II races.
The Samurai coach says he’s hoping Perry can better as a team when the first in-person DODEA-Pacific Far East meet since before the coronavirus pandemic convenes Monday and Tuesday at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
Samurai seniors Jane Williams and Tyler Gaines have posted the leading times among DODEA-Pacific runners this season, and they each have strong cadres of speedy teammates helping push them along.
“Jane is very ready right now,” Cramer said of Williams, whose time of 18 minutes, 12.4 seconds set Sept. 30 at Iwakuni leads the Pacific.
“Tyler is as ready as he’s going to be,” Cramer said of Gaines, whose 15:56.8 leads all DODEA runners and is second behind senior William Beardsley (15:24.0) of Tokyo’s St. Mary’s School.
Next week’s Far East is a return to the traditional meets of years past before 2019. The last three years, DODEA-Pacific has run the meets virtually, each team running 12½ laps on an eight-lane track, then sending the meet results to DODEA-Pacific’s area office for judging.
Now the meet returns to its long-standing home at Misawa’s Gosser Memorial Golf Course, a course featuring grass, hills, gravel, trails and an uphill finish toward the golf course’s first tee.
“It’s going to be a lot more fun in person,” Williams said.
She’ll face competition for the first time among schools from Guam and South Korea, in addition to some of the foes she’s battled from throughout Japan and Okinawa in last October’s All-Japan Pacific East meet.
“This year, I’m hoping we do something” as a group, Cramer said. In 2018, his top runners Owen Young and Angelique Armijo each won their respective Far East races, but the Samurai came in second as a team.
“I’ve been in this position before. This year, I have a couple of strong runners, and I’m hoping to place all of mine in the top 10,” Cramer said of the boys and girls D-II races. “Then again, it’s anybody’s race.”
Matthew C. Perry's Tyler Gaines' time of 15 minutes, 56.8 seconds leads all DODEA-Pacific runners this season and trails only St. Mary's William Beardsley (15:24). (Kevin Rossiter/Special to Stripes)
In addition to Williams, the girls Division I defending virtual champion, Mia Bartram of Nile C. Kinnick, returns. And Red Devils coach Luke Voth has expressed optimism that he has as strong a girls team as he’s had in six years, when Kinnick placed three girls in the top 10.
“They are definitely ready,” Voth said of a team featuring Bree Withers, who owns the third-best DODEA-Pacific time, and Bartram, who has the sixth-best. “They have their goals set.”
As for whether anybody can catch Beardsley or Williams, Voth said he feels Williams could win the overall race against D-I and D-II runners, and that he’d “be surprised” if anybody caught Beardsley.
“We don’t get too many of his kind in DODEA,” Voth said.
Among other contenders in the D-I ranks is Humphreys, which may have the best balance in both boys and girls among large schools.
“We don’t have the fastest runners, but we have the fastest groups of runners,” said coach Amy Gleason, whose Blackhawks benefitted from transfers Reagan McGuire (DODEA-Pacific’s second-best girls time) and Terrence Burnell (seventh-best boys time).
“The PCS Plane was very good to us,” Gleason said.
Another team that the PCS Plane helped was Kadena, who got senior Sebastian Praske in from Camp Lejeune, N.C., over the summer. He owns the fourth-fastest boys time in the Pacific.
If they’re able to make the adjustment to cooler climate and can recover quickly from running in the weekend’s Asia-Pacific Invitational on Guam, Guam High might have a say in things.
The Panthers boys captured the API boys team title – the first time a Guam-based school has done so – and the girls placed third.
“Our runners are looking forward to the Far East,” said longtime Panthers coach Joe Taitano. “Running and adapting to the Misawa weather would be our biggest challenge.”
