The Thomas Jefferson girls cross country team has gotten pretty familiar with the ride across the mountains to the Tri-Cities. The Raiders team has run at the past eight Class 4A State Girls Cross Country Championships at the Sun Willows Golf Course.

The seven-girl Jefferson team finished in 10th place at Saturday’s state meet in the Tri-Cities. The Raiders tallied 228 points. Eastlake High School edged out Gig Harbor by one point, 96-97, to snare the Class 4A team title.

Jefferson qualified for the state meet by finishing fifth at last week’s West Central District Championships.

The Raiders were led by the 46th-place finish of Lacey Printz over the 3.1-mile course at Sun Willows. Printz finished just ahead of teammate Camryn Patrick in a time of 19:45. Patrick finished 47th in 19:46.

The 10th-place finish Saturday was three spots better than a season ago, when the Raiders ended up 13th overall. Last year’s finish snapped a five-year run of top-10 runs for TJ.

Other Jefferson runners to finish the state meet included Vanessa Bennum (75th, 20:06), Monica Jaenicke (88th, 20:21), Rosemary Angeles (106th, 20:40), Vanessa Church (127th, 21:16) and Leah Kiyohara (131st, 21:32).

The highest individual placer from the Federal Way School District at the 2008 state meet was Beamer freshman Sara Mussa, who finished 36th overall in a time of 19:36. Federal Way’s Jasmine Johnson came in right behind Mussa in 37th in 19:38. It was Johnson’s second trip in a row to the state meet.

Beamer sophomore Taylor Kartes, who was the top Federal Way finisher at the West Central District Meet, ended up in 44th place in a time of 19:44.

On the boys’ side, the only participant at the state meet from the Federal Way school district was Thomas Jefferson sophomore Chase Braxmeyer, who finished up in 51st place in a time of 16:32.

Saturday was Braxmeyer’s first trip to the Class 4A State Boys Cross Country Championships after finishing in 10th place at last weekend’s West Central District Meet.

Redmond’s Mack Young won the individual title in a time of 15:18 and the Mead Panthers won the Class 4A team championship over second-place Henry Jackson High School.

Sports editor Casey Olson: 925-5565, sports@fedwaymirror.com