Cross country hits the ground running

Raider boys and girls went the distance at the Moses Lake Invitational cross country meet on Saturday.

“I was really pleased with our performance,” said Raider Head Coach Brian Daniels. “I think everybody did really well for their first meet.”

The 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) races were moved from Friday to Saturday to allow the smoke in the air to clear out more.

“The weather was great,” Daniels said. “The sky was quite clear. Great temperature. Slight breeze coming in from the lake. The course was at a park, so the entire run was on grass. We had one pretty sudden hill to climb that the runners had to go over three times as a part of the three laps.”

The Raider boys competed as a team, finishing 10th out of 11 teams with a team score of 288. The 3A Mt. Spokane team won with a score of 47.

Out of the 79 total runners, Adam George led the LR boys placing 36th with a time of 19 minutes, 40 seconds.

The three LR girls ran as individuals, not having enough runners to compete as a team. Out of the 59 runners, Kyona Edmo finished 31st with a time of 24:35.98, with Hannah Wapato finishing right behind her at 32nd and Kayla St. Pierre at 35th.

“This was the first meet for many, so I hope that it gave everyone a clearer idea of what to expect in the future,” Daniels said. “I also want to use this race as a starting point from which we continuously improve.”

The cross country team’s next meet will be the Trojan Invitational held in Manson at Wapato Point Park at 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16.