The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

MILTON FREEWATER - The WP Men's cross-country team placed eighth out of eight teams in the aptly named 5,000 Meter Gutbuster meet at the Milton Freewater Golf Course on Friday. Runners raced through the golf course and around the track before tackling the "gut­buster" of a hill behind the golf course, descending, and heading for the finish.

"It was a very tough course, with a big hill with rough foot­ing in many place," said Coach Joanna Lanning.

On the women's side, Em­ily Adams placed 7th out of 37 runners with a time of 21:26.42. "Emily had a terrific day," said Lanning. "She was the only freshman in the top 13! I believe she is going to come on strong in the next couple of weeks."

Above: EJ Meserve sets his pace on the fairway prior to tackling a tough hill behind the Milton- Freewater Golf Course.

"Unfortunately, some of the boys let the hill mentally get the best of them before they started the race and it was reflected in their performance," said Lan­ning.

EJ Meserve placed 17th out of 51 runners with a time of 18:25.3. Following Meserve, scoring runners for WP were Skylar Wood (21:07.68), Kyle Gradwohl (21:10.30), Jared Far­ley (21:52.73), and Tyler Shafer (22:52.73).

"Skylar Wood did a nice job and I look forward to seeing him get faster in the next few weeks," continued Lanning.

"Tom House, our lone middle school athlete and an eighth grader, competed in the Mens' JV race and had a good race. I hope the kids learned something about racing and about them­selves on Friday to help prepare them for the District race next month."

The WP X-C runners will compete next at the District 9 League Meet at Beachview Park in Clarkston on Thursday.