Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
WP's Emily Adams (#269) starts Saturday's women's race in a crowd. She ended up finishing ninth.
PASCO -- The WP Cross-Country team were all winners at Saturday's 1B/2B District 7/9 Cross Country Championships in Pasco. Each racer set personal records on the demanding and hilly course, and Emily Adams and Landon Callas crossed the finish with times fast enough to qualify them for the State Championship meet next week.
The top 20 individual girls and 4 girls' teams as well as the top 30 individual boys and 6 boys' teams qualified for the state meet.
Adams placed 9th overall out of 58 women racers, and placed second, behind Asotin's Lucy Eggleston, among District 9 runners. Adams crossed the finish with a time of 20:12 on the 5,000 meter course, dropping 27 seconds off her prior 5K best time. Adams ran the course nearly a minute faster than her previous 21:09.8 run on the same course earlier this season. "Emily knew not to push for the race of a lifetime at this one, but still ran an impressive race and earned a berth at State," said Coach Dan Nechodom.
Callas placed 20th out of 97 men runners with a time of 17:50.4, a nearly two minute improvement over his last race time on the same course of 19:40.5. Callas beat his prior 5,000 meter best time of 18:28.89 by nearly 40 seconds. "Landon stayed about 25th place most of the race, moved up to 23rd with about 200 meters to go and then hit the gas to place 20th at the finish," said Nechodom.
The boys' team was ranked at about 10th place in the district, according to Nechodom. "Reaching 6th place to make it to state would have required a total of about 7 minutes of improvement, and no improvement by their opponents," explained Nechodom. WP placed 9th as a team, but performed well. "They each ran an excellent race for PRs with an average improvement of nearly 30 seconds and Joe took nearly a minute off of his best time."
The entire team will travel to Pasco on Friday to walk the course with Adams and Callas as they prepare to compete for State ranks on Saturday at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. The women's race begins at 10 a.m. and the men run at 11:30 a.m.
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