WP Runners Take Top Scores At Home Meet

WAITSBURG - WP cross country runners took first place in all three races during the league meet here in Waitsburg Tuesday after­noon.

The local track took run­ners around the horse race track, onto the football field track, in a loop through the cemetery and back down to the race track. The runners made this circuit twice for 3.1 miles. Seth Deal led the pack in the 5 K Varsity race with a time of 17:11; Nick Carpen­ter was 5th with 18:29, and Matthew Montgomery was 10th with 19:31. Isabela Benito led the women's Varsity race with a time of 22:45. And Trent Hafen won the middle school race by a landslide, according to coach Joanna Lanning. Both Hafen and Trey Potts scored well in a recent mid­dle school meet at Fort Walla Walla. Hafen placed 2nd in the8th grade boys' 2-mile race with a time of 10:52. "And Potts really shined that day placing 8th in the 7th grade boys' 2-mile race with a time of 12:38," Lanning said. "He shaved 2:07 off his previous time on this course in September and moved up six places!" Dayton combined with WP for Tuesday's league meet. Lanning was all for it. In fact, she's been trying all season to findways to chal­lenge her runners. Tuesday's event was only the second league meet the WP team has attended. They've been going after regional invites instead. "If we weren't going to the invites, where schools of all sizes come, we would never know what some of our kids like Seth and Isabel could do," Lanning said. "It challenges them to run against tougher schools, not just B schools."

Teams at the WP meet Tues­day were Dayton, Pomeroy, Liberty Christian, WWVA, TCP and St. John-Endicott.