Whenever all four Federal Way high schools get together in one place, you know something special is most likely going to happen. The cross country runners at Beamer, Decatur, Federal Way and Thomas Jefferson didn’t disappoint Wednesday afternoon at the All-City Cross Country Meet.

The Raiders, who hosted the competition, swept the first two places in both the girls and boys races.

On the girls’ side, Jefferson’s Lacey Printz outdistanced teammate Monica Jaenicke to win the race and TJ’s Chase Braxmeyer outkicked Jeff Baklund at the finish of the boys’ race.

In terms of scoring, the four-way meet was actually two separate competitions. Jefferson downed Federal Way, 15-50, in both teams’ final South Puget Sound League North Division regular-season meet and Beamer beat Decatur, 23-38, in an SPSL South meet during the girls’ competition. On the boys’ side, the Raiders beat Federal Way, 24-35, and Beamer got by Decatur, 15-49.

Nobody could catch Printz during the 3.1-mile race around the TJ track and baseball and softball fields. The senior won the girls’ race in a time of 19:46.3. Jaenicke followed in 19:58.9, Beamer’s Taylor Kartes was third in 20:08.7 and Federal Way’s Jasmine Johnson finished up in fourth place in 20:25.5. Decatur’s top runner was Nichole Williams, who finished in seventh place (21:01.4).

On the boys’ side, Baklund controlled much of the race for the Raiders, rolling out to a commanding lead over Braxmeyer and Federal Way’s Meron Simon early.

But Braxmeyer used a strong kick at the end of the race to pull away from his teammate and Simon in, what turned out to be, a three-man competition. Braxmeyer won in a time of 16:36.3, compared to Baklund’s 16:43.4. Simon finished third in 16:48.8.

The Eagles also had strong runs from Deshawn Williams and Brandon Thornton. Williams was fourth in 17:21.6 and Thornton finished fifth in 17:23.9. Beamer was led by the sixth-place run of Jacob Wittman (17:24.3).

Attention now shifts to the postseason for all the Federal Way school district cross country runners, which kicks off Oct. 24 with the SPSL sub-district Meet at Fort Steilacoom Park. The West Central District Meet will be held a week later at the American Lake Golf Course and the Class 4A State Cross Country Championships will take place Nov. 7 in Pasco.

Boys tennis

In a battle between the unbeaten champs of the SPSL North and the SPSL Central, it was the Kentridge Chargers that proved to be the best the league has to offer. Kentridge swept Jefferson Tuesday, 5-0, including winning a pair of three-set matches. Paul Yi beat Branden Muraki at No. 2 singles, 6-1, 6-7, 10-8, and Alex Yi and Aadil Diwan beat Eric Kim and Michael Suh at No. 3 doubles, 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.

Girls soccer

Decatur remained right in the playoff mix in the South Puget Sound League South Division with a huge 2-0 win over the Curtis Vikings Wednesday.

The victory moved the Gators to 6-1-3 in the South and in a virtual tie for second place behind unbeaten Emerald Ridge. Beamer sits 7-2-2 after tying Spanaway Lake Tuesday and Curtis is 7-3-1 after losing to Decatur.

The Gators jumped all over the Vikings early Tuesday. Rylie Buckholz tallied Decatur’s first goal of the game just six minutes in to give Decatur a quick 1-0 lead. Ellie Franco added an insurance goal late in the second half. Kayla Lipston picked up the shut out in goal for the Gators, which was her fifth of the season.

Beamer, the three-time defending SPSL South Division champions, played to a 1-1 tie against Spanaway Lake Tuesday. Coming into match, the Sentinels (2-8-1) had only scored six goals on the season and five came in their only two wins of the year, both over winless Bethel. In their first meeting of the season, Beamer beat Spanaway Lake 9-0 Sept. 15.

Spanaway Lake’s Vanessa Allison gave the Sentinels a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute on a pass from Kimberly Wagner Tuesday. Beamer’s Holland Crook, who is headed to Arizona State University next year, tallied the equalizer in the 60th minute to tie the game at 1-1.

Federal Way (4-5-2) shut out the Kent-Meridian Royals Tuesday, 4-0. The Eagles got a pair of goals from Molly Campbell and one each from Ashtin Rigney and Laneisha Robinson.

Volleyball

The Thomas Jefferson Raiders picked up a non-league victory over Decatur Tuesday, 25-22, 25-10, 23-25, 26-24. The Raiders (5-3 overall) got 36 assists and five aces from Allie Crowe, 14 kills and 14 digs from Kendra Ansotigue and 13 kills from Katelyn Nugent.

The Gators (1-8) were led by the seven kills and 10 assists from Charisma Toilolo and eight kills from Audri Mooth.

Federal Way (2-8) and Beamer (4-4) both suffered straight-set losses Tuesday. The Eagles were beaten by Kent-Meridian, 25-12, 25-15, 27-25, and Beamer was dropped by Spanaway Lake, 25-14, 25-8, 25-20.