It was business as usual for the Thomas Jefferson High School girls cross country program Saturday at the Class 4A State Championships at the Sun Willows Golf Course in the Tri-Cities.

The Raiders finished up in seventh-place overall in the team standings in the program’s ninth trip to the state meet in the last 10 years.

Jefferson was led by the 24th-place finish of senior Leah Kiyohara. Senior Brianna Calveri was 40th overall and Amanda Ditzhazy was 57th overall to help the Raiders finish with 190 team points. Eisenhower won the 4A crown with 110 points in the Tri-Cities.

Other Jefferson finishers were Vanessa Church in 91st, Lindsey Jackson in 113th, Kelin Doner in 139th and Casey Yamasaki in 150th.

While the TJ girls were making their usual trip across the mountains to the Tri-Cities for the state meet, the Federal Way boys were making the trek for the first time.

In their first appearance running as a team at the 2010 Class 4A State Cross Country Championships, the Eagle boys finished up in 13th place overall, led by the ninth place finish of senior Meron Simon.

Eisenhower won the Class 4A title with four runners finishing in the top-23 places overall during the 5-kilometer race. Lewis and Clark finished second and Auburn Riverside was third. The Eagles did finish ahead of fellow SPSL teams Kentridge and Tahoma.

Federal Way’s Brandon Thornton was 70th overall, Nathan Brewster was 84th, Patrick Crews was 95th, Kyle Willis was 143rd, Ben Willis was 144th and Alex Tran finished 145th overall.

But it was a pair of runners from non-qualifying teams who had the highest finishes of any Federal Way school district athletes. Thomas Jefferson senior Chase Braxmeyer finished eighth overall in the Class 4A boys race in a time of 15:43.6.

Lewis and Clark’s Kenji Bierig easily won the individual state title by covering the 5-kilometer course in 15:09. Mead’s Andrew Gardner was second in 15:26.1.

On the girls’ side, Federal Way senior Jasmine Johnson snagged eighth place overall in a time of 18:29.9 Saturday. Inglemoor’s Tansey Lystad won the race in 17:44.4.

Beamer’s Sara Mussa ended up in 44th place overall in a time of 19:31.5. The junior was the school’s lone girl participant at the state meet. Beamer freshman Haftom Tafere finished in 113th place on the boys’ side.