The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - The W-P Cross Country team performed well in their first meet of the season, the Aso­tin XC Island Run Invite at Chief Timothy Island State Park in Clarkston on Satur­day.

W-P's sole female run­ner, freshman Emily Adams, who never lost a race during her eighth grade year, placed fourth overall, against 45 runners. Adams was first among 2B runners, ahead of District 9's top two female harriers; senior Heather Siegal of St. John-Endicott and Lucy Eggleston, a junior from Asotin.

"This is Emily's first high school Cross Country race as a freshman and it showed she will be a force to be reck­oned with," said Coach Jo­anna Lanning. I predict these girls will be battling every time we meet this season."

Adams held nothing back, woozy as she crossed the finish line with a bloody mouth from biting a chunk out of her lip during the race. Adams ran the 2.6 mile course in 17:48.27. "She left it all out on the course and a coach couldn't ask for more," said Lanning.

Senior E. J. Meserve put in a solid run to finish 17th out of 61 runners overall, and 6th among District 9 run­ners with a time of 16:05.05. "E.J. didn't disappoint," said Lanning. "He will continue to get faster and stronger as the season progresses as he has a good summer's train­ing behind him."

The three freshman boys finished one after the other: Skylar Wood 18:33.47, Kyle Gradwohl 18:39.95, Jared Farley 18:51.14. The boys placed 11th, 12th and 13th among the 26 District 9 run­ners. "I was happy with the three freshmen as they ran hard and finished close to­gether, 'packing', which was what we had discussed as a race strategy," said Lanning.

"Our lone middle school athlete, Tom House, did fantastic in his first ever X-C race. He too, ran all sum­mer and it was illustrated at this meet with a great run." House placed 33rd out of 82 runners with a time of 12:36.56 in the 1.5 mile course.

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