2026 SPSL 4A Cross Country Championships: Preview & Contenders
Olympia's Leah Hennen leads the pack during golden hour at the 2026 Nike Twilight XC Invitational in Everett, WA
On Thursday, I will be at Fort Steilacoom Park for the SPSL 4A League Championships. Charlotte White (Curtis) and Leah Hennen (Olympia) on the girls' side, along with Quenton Lanese (Olympia) and Asher Pepin (Curtis) on the boys' side, will line up for the final league meet of the season.
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The Girls' Race
South Kitsap sophomore Tabitha Riley competes on the track during the 2026 season.
South Kitsap’s Tabitha Riley will be looking to hit a late-season surge heading into championships. The sophomore locked in a personal best at the Wolves' time trials to kick off the season and looks to be inching back to that form at the right time. Riley finished 16th here last year, but is currently sitting comfortably in 3rd among her SPSL counterparts.
Curtis's Charlotte White pushes the pace at the 2026 Hoka John Payne XC Invitational
Behind the front three, Curtis’s Alessandra Esparza is joined by Olympia’s Carolina Schilter and Gemma Stevick, with only 2.2 seconds separating the trio. Further into the top 10—Aaliyah Mahaffey (#7, Curtis), Deejay Taylor (#8, Yelm), Emma Maris (#9, Rogers), and Kaitlyn Brown (#10, Curtis)—have all put together strong seasons and will look to close things out on a high note.
Puyallup's Kyung-Ah Lee competes at the 2026 Nike Portland XC Invitational.
Puyallup is the one squad positioned to disrupt the top two in team scoring. They field four athletes inside the league's top 20, and Kyung-Ah Lee will need to have a big day to help propel the Vikings into the mix.
Still, the state-ranked battle between Olympia (#6) and Curtis (#7) will be the one to watch. Olympia finished second at the state championships last year and is looking to build confidence heading into districts next week. Curtis’s squad finished outside the top 10 last season, but they have shown they are ready to disrupt things heading down the stretch.
The Boys' Race
Curtis's Asher Pepin races at the 2026 Hoka John Payne XC Invitational.
On the boys' side, Curtis rolls in as the heavy favorite to take home the league championship, though they will have to get past South Kitsap and Olympia first. With all five of Curtis’s scorers sitting inside the league's top 10, it is easy to see why it is their title to lose.
Yelm's Marcos Andujar competes at the 2026 Hoka John Payne XC Invitational.
Individually, Yelm’s Marcos Andujar (15:30.9) has had one heck of a season and will look to challenge at the front. Meanwhile, South Kitsap’s junior duo of Robert Wells and Nolan Butler will need a massive day at Fort Steilacoom to break up Curtis's low-scoring pack and displace some points.
Individual title favorite Quenton Lanese of Olympia surges down the stretch at the 2026 Fort Steilacoom Invitational.
Quenton Lanese (14:54.7) is no doubt the heavy individual favorite, but tactical questions remain. Is he going to push the pace early, and will Asher Pepin (15:26.9) go with him to see what sticks? Can Andujar hang with them for 5,000m? Will Olympia’s boys rise to the occasion and scramble the team rankings, and where will a scrappy Yelm squad land?
Personal Take
Leah Hennen, Charlotte White, and Tabitha Riley stand to give us a race to remember. Hennen and White both enter Thursday deadlocked with an identical 18:03.3 season best—you can bet they will look to settle that score fair and square. While Riley’s mark (18:17.3) sits a bit off the front two, she is on the trajectory to have a breakthrough day. In the team scoring, Olympia’s girls take the title with Curtis right on their heels.
For the boys, Quenton Lanese is a man on a mission every time the gun goes off. Even when I speculate that he might cruise and save his legs, his "light days" exist in another realm. Expect Pepin to take whatever his legs give him without overextending, knowing he has bigger fish to fry heading toward districts and Pasco with a title-contending team behind him. I have Andujar finishing comfortably in third, riding the front-pack pull to a huge personal-best kind of day behind Lanese and Pepin.
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