WP: This Year It’s Quality Over Quantity

WAITSBURG - The Cardinals' cross-country running team may be down in the numbers this year, but when it comes to distance competition it's more about "quality than quantity," head coach Joanna Lanning believes.

The WP running team is down to six runners - three high schoolers and three middle schoolers. The group has lost five seniors during the past two years, "which is a big hit," Lanning said.

Last year, the team consisted of nine runners - seven high schoolers and two middle schoolers.

But this year, the high school competitors are particularly talented and dedicated. They include Seth Deal, who placed fourth in state last fall in the men's varsity 5,000-meter race with a time of 18:04 and placed third in state in the men's 1,600 and 3,200-meter track runs at Cheney; sophomore E.J. Meserve and Trent Hafen, who ranks 13th in the nation for his age group in the 1,500 meters.

The middle schoolers are Emily Adams, and brothers Tre and Andre Potts.

"It's better to have a few dedicated athletes than a team with big numbers," Lanning said. "We worry more about individual placement."

Placing high is something several of the team members have been working on this summer. Deal, Meserve and Hafen went to weeklong intensive training camp organized by Walla Walla High School cross-country running coach Mike Lacoti.

His program at Tollgate just across the state line in Oregon brings together about 100 students from several schools in the region and sends them running - anywhere from 12 to 18 miles a day on trails that reach 5,000 feet in elevation and this year even have some snow on them, Lanning said.

"We were slipping and sliding," she said. "Those three are in really good shape. They continued running all summer (since the end of the track season)."

Lanning said Meserve has lots of natural ability and could easily shave three minutes off his time in a five-mile run, bringing his performance down to about 16 minutes, not much above Deal's time last season, which was just more than 15 minutes.

While Deal is already well-established as a successful competitor, Hafen has the physique, stamina and potential of a very successful distance runner.

"He has a ton of potential,"

Lanning said about the teenager whose self-ascribed mission is to eventually place in the U.S. Olympic team.

In an interview late spring, Hafen said running is second nature to him.

"It's hard to explain," he told the Times. "It feels natural to me. I feel like I have the body for it."

Like many athletes, Hafen said he gets "into the zone.

"After three miles, it isn't tiring anymore and I just keep going at a good pace."

The Cardinals' crosscountry season starts with the Hermiston Invite on Sept. 10.