Training Pays Off As Local Runners Improve Their Times

DAYTON - Dayton cross country runners did well at their league meet at home last week. On Tuesday, Sept. 21, the entire team ran, and took second place. "The Tri-Cities Prep team was intimidatingly large, but several people improved their race pace," said coach Dan Nechodom. "Many of our athletes are learning the truth of the fact that a com­mon

training error is to push too hard on the easy days and not hard enough on the hard days." Nechodom has always focused on a developmental approach to the training of his athletes, "but sometimes it takes a few weeks for it to sink in," he said.

"We're past the fourth-week slump and are begin­ning to see gains and break­throughs from the training we've been doing. As long as we can avoid catastro­phes,

or, more common, those niggling little injuries that are always threatening a runner, we should be able to keep an upward trajectory and race pretty well." In the varsity boys 3.06 mile run, Jaron Button placed fifth and Nathanial Steen placed seventh: at 12th place was Jason Norris, 20th was Marshall Nechodom, 21th Seth Jackson, 25th Nick Owens, and 32nd Jacob Wag­goner. In the girls varsity run, Claire Lyman placed 12th, Anita Jackson 16th, and Briana Fulbright 17th. Waitsburg-Prescott cross country athletes attended the Connell Invite on Saturday, Sept. 25.

Thirty-five teams repre­senting 4A-1B/2B schools from Oregon, Washington and Idaho competed at the meet. Trophies were award­ed for each varsity race division. The boys ran as a team for the first time this season, finishing in second place for the B schools in the 5K race. Twelve B schools partici­pated in the meet. Seth Deal lead the way for the W-P runners with a "fantastic" 7th place finish out of 170 varsity boys with a time of 16:31, said coach Joanna Lanning.

"Seth continues to train hard and the results are pay­ing off as it is for Nick Car­penter, 22nd place with a time of 17:21 and Erik Sandolval, 77th, 18:46," she said. "This is freshman Erik's second cross country race ever, and he is improving by leaps and bounds. He works very hard at practice and is excited about the sport."

Matthew Montgom­erey was 95th, with a time of 19:14; freshman E.J. Merserve came back from an injury to place 114th, at 19:48 and Ben Moser was 148th, with 22:11. "Isabel Benito put on a terrific performance to place 22nd out of 126 runners in the girls' varsity race with a time of 21:59," Lanning reported. "Only two girls in our dis­trict

placed ahead of her, so this bodes well for Isabel making it to state."

W-P was well represent­ed in the middle school boys' race of 1.5 miles. Trent Hafen was 2nd with a time of 8:50 and Trey Potts was 16th, with 9:55. Thirty fiveboys were in this race. Hafen and Potts also ran in a two-mile middle school race Thursday, Sept. 23, at Fort Walla Walla. Schools participating in this meet were all large middle schools that feed into 4A schools from Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities. W-P was the only small school repre­sented. Potts was 14th out of 33 runners with a time of 14:45 in the 7th grade boys' race and Hafen was 3rd of out 48 runners in the 8th grade boys' race with a time of 12:14; only 34 seconds behind the winner.