WP Rocks Pasco Invite

PASCO - The WP boys ran to win last Wednesday with Seth Deal and Tewedros McDowell placing first and second, respec- tively, in the men's high school cross country race at the District 9 League Meet.

Deal finished in 17:01 with McDowell behind him at 18:00.

These top scores helped the WP men's team place second overall.

"Seth ran tough, but relaxed as his lead was never threatened," said WP coach Joanna Lanning. "Tewedros was terrific, show- ing signs of emerging as a real talent."

However, Lanning said tak- ing the top two spots still wasn't enough to take down Tri Cities Prep.

WP competed last Wednes- day against teams from Aso- tin, Dayton, Liberty Christian, Pomeroy, St. John-Endicott, Tekoa-Oakesdale-Rosalia, Tri Cities Prep, Walla Walla Val- ley Academy and Columbia- Burbank.

TCP was on top for the high school men and St. John-Endicott was top for the women.

The other runners who com- peted for WP last Wednesday were E.J. Meserve, who placed 10th with a time of 19:42, Corey Braxton, who places 12th with a time of 20:08, Jacob Dingfield , who places 20th with a time of 20:25, and Kevin Kamel, who came in 24th with a time of 21:47.

WP runner Trent Hafen is still injured and didn't compete. Lan- ning said she hopes to have him run in the next meet on Saturday.

Because a Saturday meet had been scheduled, Lanning said the WP team treated the Pasco meet as a workout.

"We treated the meet as a workout as we were supposed to compete Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Seaport Invite, which was canceled due to poor air quality," she said.

Perhaps the more relaxed nature of the runners that day helped Deal and McDowell take the lead.

"Everyone is working hard and I saw improvement where it needed to be, so I was very pleased with the day," she added.

Dayton only had three runners compete last Wednesday. Austin Krekula placed 29th in the men's race with a time of 21:58, followed by Tim Ihle at 44th with a time of 27:09. Kiara Biggar ran the women's race and placed 23rd with a time of 29:46.

"Most athletes had set goals for the race that had to do with either completing the race without walking, or budgeting energy more evenly through- out their race," Dayton coach Dan Nechodom said. "By and large, they were successful. Since it was much smaller race than the previous one, it was hard to see themselves moving up in the standings, but they pushed themselves pretty hard, with a few rallying at the very end to get past people they'd been chasing for much of the race."