PORT ANGELES — Three races into North Kitsap’s cross country season, and the Vikings are already gunning for the state meet, devising strategies for what it will take to be in front when the time comes.

Witnessing gutsy performances from many of his upper-echelon runners on both the varsity and JV levels already, head coach Lee Hodin knows that the team is laden with championship-caliber talent.

“I think we have championship runners that will step up when the time comes. I think a lot of them wish that it was already time to do it, and that’s when you know,” he said after practice Monday. “Today, on our 10-miler, I started talking about state and what it’s gonna take and all of a sudden we were just flying.”

Hodin said he has felt the mentality of the team shift from the thought of “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get to state?” to “We’ve got something to prove at state,” and he couldn’t be happier with the desire.

Over the weekend, the NK harriers took a trip to Port Angeles for the 28-team Salt Creek Invitational which provided the venue for the NK fire to blaze.

Collectively, both the NK boys and girls varsity teams raced confidently finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Gig Harbor took the team titles in each division, setting examples which the Vikings learned from on their quest for self-improvement.

“A lot of the stuff that I try and teach, I use other teams more as examples, that’s where you can really learn,” Hodin said. “My big goal for them for this meet was to push through fatigue and see what was on the other side.”

Hodin said he had challenged the NK crew with reaching one of the toughest points in the race — the 800-meter mark of the 3-mile course — and fighting through the pain by disregarding all else and just running.

The brazen strategy comes at a point in the season where training is no holds barred in an attempt to push the team to its absolute limit, Hodin said.

At Salt Creek, when he pushed, the Vikings responded.

In the girls race, junior Kelly Cates continued to impress, finishing first for the NK ladies, placing eighth in the meet on an impressive, 18:34 performance. While freshman Ruby Roberts finished in, 18:39, grabbing ninth place in her debut meet for the Vikes.

Rounding out the NK ladies top five, Jennifer Gregg finished 35th overall, Erica Warkus placed 43rd and Nicole Bazar came in 53rd.

In the boys race, senior Cody Bradwell pulled through with a race that Hodin qualified as a “breakthrough,” finishing 10th with a time of 15:20. Juniors Nick Cameron and Ray Reedy followed up for the Vikes, taking 19th and 23rd place respectively.

Rounding out the Viking top-five, Paul Coulter took 56th and Zac Simmons placed 70th.

On the JV side of things, the NK boys took second as a team with their top-five each finishing in the top-20 while the JV girls took ninth.

“It was a solid performance from the team, with plenty of room for improvement, but a lot in which to be proud,” Hodin summed up the weekend, noting that improved confidence in the NK’s fourth, fifth and sixth runners should provide the team an avenue to the state meet.