The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

CLARKSTON - WP's Cross Country team kicked off their season with a 2.6 mile Asotin XC Island Run at Chief Timothy park in Clarkston, Wash. on Sept. 13. "Being the first race of the season - and ever for some runners - we didn't set a lot of expectations. Still, I was pleased with the day and we all gained some information and experience on which we'll keep building," said Coach Dan Nechedom.

Sophomore Emily Adams placed fifth out of 33 women runners with a finish time of 18:36.10. Adams placed second among the seven southeast 2B runners, beat out only by Asotin's Lucy Eggleston - the third female runner to break 17 minutes on the course -- who finished in an impressive 16:51.01. Eggleston placed first overall, nearly a minute ahead of Clarkston's Lindsey Heflin who finished second at 17:42.89.

"Emily didn't meet her time goal, but avoided beating herself up about it. Instead, she analyzed the race, noted positives and negatives and quickly made plans for the next one," said Nechedom.

WP's fastest men's runner was new team member, sophomore Landon Callas, who finished 25th out of 59 runners at 16:40.19. Callas placed fifth among the 13 2B runners. He was followed by sophomore Skylar Wood (17:53.84), freshman Robert Walsh (19:10.46), freshman Tom House (19:27.95), and sophomore Joe Leamy (19:36.94). Top finisher in the men's race was senior Chandler Teigen of Asotin, who once again broke his previous boys' course record with a time of 13:35.42.

"The guys were going to stay in a group for the first mile and a half or two, but use their judgment if someone was feeling too dead or too frisky, to stay with the pack. Sky and Landon took off and were pushing the envelope before mile one and held it well to the finish. Robert, Tom and Joe stayed mostly together, pushing each other in for strong finishes," said Nechedom.