October 27, 2015

Girls take third at State Cross Country Meet

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

Watford City’s girls cross country team had a very impressive showing at the State Cross Country Meet on Saturday, Oct. 24, in Grand Forks, with three runners placing in the top 10 finishers.
Kayla Ogle led the Wolves’ girls team as she crossed the finish line in fifth place with a time of 15:00.09, while Asha Smith and Hayley Ogle finished in seventh and eighth places, respectively, in times of 15:15.17 and 15:45.29.
The Watford City girls had entered the State Meet ranked as the No. 5 team and according to Greg Brown, Wolves’ head coach, the entire team ran their best times of the season.
“Our girls team put everything together on Saturday,” stated Brown. “They all ran very well and ended up with the third place finish. Every girl ran their best times of the season.”
Brown was also proud of the boys team’s seventh place finish at State.
“The boys team did extremely well,” stated Brown. “This is the first time at State that we had all five scoring runners finish in under 20 minutes.”
Raehs Puetz paced the Watford City boys team as he completed the course in 15th place in a time of 17:40.06.
“The boys did an excellent job all season long pushing their limits to make themselves better,” stated Brown.
The Wolves had three girls, Kayla Ogle, Asha Smith and Hayley Ogle named to the All State Girls Cross Country Team, while Raehs Puetz was named to the All State Boys Cross Country Team.
Also placing for the Watford City girls team was Ellie Schmitz, 52nd, 17:10.22; Gemma Campbell, 99th, 18:13.65; Gabby Hogue, 166th, 19:48.21; and Becca Campbell, 200th, 21:20.78.
“All of the girls worked hard all season long and accomplished their team goal,” stated Brown. “I am extremely proud of each and every one of our girls.”
Also placing for the Watford City boys team was Dakota Garmann, 36th, 18:32.59; Devin Schmitz, 58th, 19:06.92; Osman Leon, 68th, 19:18.77; Hunter DeFoe, 83rd, 19:30.14; Jack Gillispey, 114th, 20:10.51; Ethan Lyon, 135th, 20:28.30; Cole McGorman, 143rd, 20:38.44; Cauy Hartel, 183rd, 21:30.07; and Carter Zenz, 212th, 22:39.64.
“We will continue our chase of being able to finish in the top five at State with our boys team,” stated Brown. “We are getting closer to the top five teams, but have not had the ability to push ourselves over the top yet.”

WATFORD CITY WEATHER