Portland Public Schools

Franklin High School senior Aidan Palmer won his second consecutive boys championship, and Lincoln freshman Kate Peters took the girls title at the Portland Interscholastic League district cross country championships Wednesday at Lents Park.

Palmer edged his teammate, junior Charlie Robertson, by 0.2 seconds to win the boys race for the second consecutive year. Palmer finished the 5,000-meter course in 15 minutes, 21.7 seconds, cutting 10 seconds off his winning time from last year, when the race was held at Fernhill Park.

Palmer and Robertson – who won a state track and field title in the 3,000 meters in May -- were joined by three other Franklin runners in the top 10. Sophomore Charlie North finished sixth, junior Jackson Buffonge was seventh and junior Daniel Fajardo was 10^th as the Lightning repeated as team champion with 26 points, 28 ahead of runner-up Lincoln.

Peters won the girls race in 17:41.0, 3.5 seconds ahead of runner-up Annelies Quinton, a Grant junior. Peters followed in the footsteps of Kayla Becker, who won three consecutive PIL cross country titles before graduating from Lincoln last spring.

Peters led Lincoln to the team championship with 31 points, 42 ahead of runner-up Franklin. Junior Mia Kane (fifth), sophomore Riley Cash (sixth), sophomore Tsu-quin-da-ro Enyart (ninth) and sophomore Ellie Cook (10th) also scored for the Cardinals, who were so strong they did not need the 11th-place finish of senior Isabel Homsi (the top five finishers for each team count toward the team score).

The event also served as a qualifier for the Class 6A state meet, and the top three teams earned a state spot. The Franklin boys will be joined by Lincoln, which was led by a third-place finish from junior Mateo Althouse, and Wilson, who got a fourth-place finish by junior Giuliano Scasso.

The Lincoln girls will be joined by Franklin, which got a third-place finish from junior Autumn Ost and a fourth place from sophomore Kaiya Robertson, and Wilson, which got a seventh place from junior Sylvia Ingram.

In addition to the runners on top-three teams, any runner who finished in the top seven earned a state spot. Roosevelt senior Abdinasir Hussein earned a spot by finishing fifth in the boys race, and Quinton earned a girls berth with her runner-up finish.

The state meet is Saturday, Nov. 9 at Lane Community College in Eugene. The Class 6A girls race starts at 2:55 p.m., and the boys race is at 3:30 p.m.

• See a full set of photos from the PIL district meet
• See the full results from the varsity and junior varsity races