Cross-country Demons celebrate Senior Night

It takes a special athlete to compete in cross country.

There is no bench, no substitutions. It is just the athlete, the course and a race against time.

Washington High School celebrated its cross-country athletes who are seniors (Allison Hippen, Claire Horak, Molly Sparks, Ashley Telleen, Peyton Cuddeback, Ben Loy, Ben Schiffer and Mateo Hernandez) Thursday at the Washington Golf and Country Club.

'It was a great senior night because our seniors really stepped up and had great races,” Washington coach Stefanie Haworth said. 'Ben Loy ran four minutes faster than he did last year. Him and Ben Schiffer and Mateo Hernandez, all three of those guys have worked really hard for me for the past several seasons. A couple of the senior girls are battling some injuries, but they gutted it out and had a great race. The times were not quite what they wanted but they went out and gave it their all and I can't ask for anything more than that.”

Highland's Madison Thomann won the girls race in 21 minutes, 51 seconds.

'I wanted to get under 22 minutes,” Thomann said. 'It helps to have that goal and it makes me want to achieve it. It was one of my better times.”

Thomann took the opportunity to get in front of the pack, then talked herself into staying there.

'I just tell myself to keep going. I wanted to stay in front. I just told myself that I know I can do it and that kept me going. When I get in the back, it gets me down.”

She won by 19 seconds over second place.

'I don't know how close anybody was, I just kept going,” Thomann said. 'It makes me proud of myself to know that I could do it this way and that I could win.”

Kelsey Pacha was the highest Washington finisher, taking fifth in 23:02.

Keota's Paige Thompson was sixth in 23:12.

Mt. Pleasant's Dalton Moyle won the boys race in 18:05 with Washington's Evan Horak taking second in 18:23.

The two ran shoulder to shoulder for much of the race until a certain part of the course.

'He got away from me on that backside where that last killer hill was,” Horak said. 'This was definitely one of the hardest meets this year so far. All these hills are more than any other course. It was a pain. Especially on the backside because that is where my legs went dead. After that I just kept trying to grind it out.”

Horak intends to keep grinding and improving so that when the district meet happens, he can accomplish his goal.

'I want to get a spot at state. I'll see if I can get it. I have to really stay on top of my game to do it.”

His coach believes in him.

'I know he was hoping for the win tonight, but he still had a great race,” Haworth said. 'He has nothing to be upset about. He left it all out there and that's all you can do. He's running strong right now, much better than he has been in the past. He is determined. Evan has nothing to be disappointed about. He ran a great race. He also brought the rest of the team up with him.

'This is by far the toughest course we have ran on so far. The weather was ideal though, so a lot of it is mental. We had a tough practice Tuesday when this meet was canceled.”

Washington's Elijah Morris won the middle school boys meet with a time of 10:04. Grace Voss was the highest Washington finisher in the girls race, placing sixth in 13:54.

GIRLS

Team scores - 1. Mt. Pleasant 25, 2. Washington 54, 3. Highland 94

Individuals

Washington - 5. Kelsey Pacha 23:02, 10. Victoria Hinson 23:41, 12. Abby Voss 24:42, 13. Ashley Telleen 24:46, 14. Bailey Bryant 24:47

Highland - 1. Madison Thomann 21:51, 8. Taylor Sublette 23:33, 24. Alli Brand 26:39 28. Fiona Mahler 27:58, 33. Kate McFarland 34:03

Keota - 6. Paige Thompson 23:12, 21. Frankie Johnson 26:00, 23. Jenna Jaeger 26:19, 31. Nikki Steege 31:34

BOYS

Team scores - 1. Mt. Pleasant 27, 2. Washington 30, 3. Keokuk 146

Individuals

Washington - 2. Evan Horak 18:23, 3. Lance Sobaski 18:54, 4. Matthew Collett 19:30, 10. Quinn Wubbena 20:12, 11. Ben Loy 20:16

Highland - 14. Jacob Roling 20:56

Keota - 19. Jayden Lawson 21:41, 33. Noah Oriano 27:05, 35. Matt Butler 28:21, 36. Noah Holden 34:45