WP XC Team Ready Outrun The Competition

WAITSBURG - With 15 WP cross country runners turning out for the fall season, the team and the coach are dreaming of their competitive opportunities.

Coach Joanna Lanning, in her ninth year with the team, said she has 15 athletes, eight at the high school level and seven at the mid­dle school level. The team boasts middle school athletes, athletes from Jubilee Youth Ranch and even an exchange student from Belgium, Lanning said.

This year, the cross country team will be able to field a var­sity men's team with a couple of alternates. Lanning said after the first meet the spots on that five-person team will be ranked and given to athletes in a strategic way to bring home some victo­ries for the Cardinals.

"The five will keep chang­ing," Lanning said.

Even if athletes are not chosen for the five-member team, every member of the team will still compete at each meet, she said.

In addition to the high school five-member team, the junior high team will field a competitive five-member men's team as well.

Lanning is thrilled this year because her high turnout also means many different levels of ability. She said it is a great dynamic with the majority of the high school team having experi­ence and the younger runners being a bit more green. Even with the different degrees of talent, she said her team will still be very competitive because the team will be focused and training hard.

"Hard work takes you a long way," she said.

Veterans on the cross country high school team are captain Seth Deal, Trent Hafen and EJ Meserve. At the junior high level, Emily Adams and Andre Potts are the returners.

As the team gears up for the start of the school year, the young­er ones are working to build a solid running base, Lanning said.

But with such a large team, Lanning is focused on another team aspect this year - team bonding. For the junior high team, running is mostly a new ac­tivity. So, Lanning is introducing a first-ever mentoring program within her team that will pair up high school runners with junior high runners. Lanning said she had read about the mentoring program and wanted to try it out last spring during track season. However, it will be easier to start with a smaller team like cross country, she said.

"It's a good thing to try with a smaller group," she said. "I think it should be pretty successful."

Lanning said having a large team will also put some more re­sponsibility of captain and senior Deal, who will help oversee the large group.

This will be Deal's final sea­son with the team. After a disap­pointing 16-place finish last year at the state cross country meet after getting a bout of flu, Deal has been training all summer and plans to go out with a bang.

"I want to focus on working hard every day in practice and win state," Deal said.

Deal has been doing long runs twice a week and speed workouts to get ready for the season. The only runner he sees as competi­tion is the no. 2 Tri Cities Prep runner who will be returning.

"Most of my main competi­tion graduated," Deal said. "My chances are improved, but I like to race against the best."

In his captain role, he is ready to be a good role model by work­ing hard and helping his team­mates be the best runners they can be, he said. Once the team really gets into shape in October and November, be believes the Cardinals will be unstoppable.

"We should be competing to win a district title and be top in the state," Deal said.

The team's first meet is in Hermiston on Sept. 8.

WP Cross Country Roster:

Seth Deal

EJ Meserve

Trent Hafen

Kevin Kamel

Tewedros McDowell

Corey Braxton

Jacob Dingfield

Emily Adams

Maribel Martinez Mendoza

Kyle Gradwohl

Andre Potts (P)

Maribel Mendoza (P)

Dylan Knowles

Emily Adams

Jared Farley

Korben Duffy