Demons run into tough competition at the Mt. Pleasant Invitational

In a preview of the Oct. 11 Southeast Conference cross-country meet, which will be held in Fort Madison, all five conference schools made up Class AA at Tuesday?s Mt. Pleasant Invitational at the Old Threshers grounds. And if Tuesday?s meet was any indication, Washington?s teams will need to continue to improve if they want to make some noise at the conference meet.

The Washington girls totaled 106 points and finished fourth. Fort Madison and Mt. Pleasant tied for first place with 30 points apiece, and the Bloodhounds won the tiebreaker. Fairfield, which was running without star Jessica Lamb, finished third with 66 points. Keokuk did not have enough runners for a team score.

Sophomore Stephanie Loy again led the Demons, just as she had in the team?s first three meets. Loy placed 15

^th

in 18:20. Sophomore Stephanie Greiner finished 20

^th

in 19:00, and senior Kaitlin Buchholz was 22

^nd

in 19:14. Senior Maddie Bohr came in 23

^rd

in 19:20, and sophomore Jennie Greene rounded out the scoring with her 26

^th

-place finish in 20:18. Senior Sara Conwell finished 28

^th

in 20:31.

Junior Chayse Jaspering came in 11

^th

in the junior varsity race, crossing the finish line in 20:26. Sophomore Aaliyah Brown finished 20

^th

in 22:13, and sophomore Jalyssa Jepson was 26

^th

in 23:15.

The Demon boys totaled 126 points and finished fifth. No. 13 Fort Madison took five of the top six spots in the boys? race and won with a mere 17 points. Mt. Pleasant took second with 48 points, and Fairfield was third with 77. Keokuk finished fourth, 12 points ahead of Washington.

Sophomore Curtis Vest led the Demons with his 19

^th

-place finish in 19:24. His time was 30 seconds faster than at last year?s Mt. Pleasant Invitational. Senior Brandon Rhinhart crossed the finish line six seconds later in 21

^st

place, and junior Austin Latcham was 26

^th

in 20:43. Senior Logan Moeller came in 28

^th

in 21:06, and junior Jiovanni Tapia rounded out the scoring with his 32

^nd

-place finish in 23:21. Junior Chase Litchfield finished 34

^th

in 29:26.

Washington head coach Steve Roth said that Tuesday?s meet showed how tough the SEC is.

?The competition was outstanding,? he said. ?Our conference is very, very tough.?

And while he was pleased with the times his athletes ran at Tuesday?s meet, Roth didn?t see the kind of improvement he would have liked.

?I?ve got a few concerns,? he said. ?We?re running the times we?ve been running all year, but they?re not coming down. They?re not bad times. They?re steady. But I?m going to work on a couple of different workouts to see if I can get their times to come down a little more. That?s my concern right now.?

The Demons have three more meets to try to improve before the Oct. 11 conference meet. Washington travels to the Pekin Invite at Lake Darling on Saturday before returning home to host the Washington Invite at the Washington Golf and Country Club on Tuesday afternoon. The Demon will then run at the IMS Invitational at the Wellman Golf Course on Oct. 1.