October 24, 2012

Cross Country teams head to State Class B Meet

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

Greg Brown, Watford City’s cross country head coach, has some pretty high expectations for his teams this Saturday at the State Class B Cross Country Meet.
But then you can’t really blame him for thinking big when he has Asha Smith, the No. 1 runner in the Class B ranks, on his girls team.
But as Brown knows all too well, sometimes it’s not just how well the athletes are prepared physically that determines how well the team does. Mental toughness is also a key to performance.
“We are ready for the State Meet,” states Brown. “The athletes put in a lot of hard work over the long weekend and their practice times are dropping.”
Brown says that running at State is really a mental game.
“When it comes to State, it becomes the mental game and who is the most prepared to run hard,” says Brown. “Every athlete has trained hard all season to see where they are at this meet.”
And Brown says that both the boys and girls teams have been working hard all season for this one race.
“When I look at our mileage for this week, I feel it is a pretty short week,” says Brown. “But their legs should be jumpy come Saturday and they should want to run hard. It should be a good weekend.”
The State Meet moves west this year with the event being held at the Dickinson Heart River Golf Course on Saturday, Oct. 27. During Saturday’s meet, the Class B boys will run at 12 noon with the Class B girls running at 12:45 p.m.
Watford City wrapped up its regular season meets this past week at Killdeer where the girls placed second and the boys team finished in third.
Asha Smith led the girls team with a first place finish with a time of 13:07, while Hayley Moe came in 13th in a time of 14:56.
In the boys division, Guy Ross and Dustin Kleppen finished in the top 10 with Ross placing second in 16:29 and Kleppen coming in eighth in 16:59.
“In Killdeer, we got a try at mental toughness with it being cold, windy and wet, so they know they can run in tough conditions,” stated Brown.
Also placing for the Wolves in the girls division was McKayla Haugeberg, 16th, 15:01; Addison Sundeen, 17th, 15:02; Lea Arndt, 18th, 15:03; Tara Loomer, 24th, 15:37; Katie Skarda, 30th, 16:15; and Kara Wold, 37th, 16:45.
Following Ross and Kleppen across the finish line for the Watford City boys team was Logan Gumke, 15th, 17:18; Michael Brown, 19th,  17:52; Braedon Gumke, 25th 18:39; Devin Schmitz, 32nd, 20:01; Hunter DeFoe, 33rd, 20:26; Dakota Garmann, 37th, 21:27; Trevor Alveshere, 38th, 21:55; and Josh Segneri, 39th, 22:39.

WATFORD CITY WEATHER