October 21, 2009

Wolves head to State Cross Country Meet

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

A long break from competing due to inclement weather and Homecoming activities may have hurt the Wolves at the Regional Cross Country Meet but, according to Greg Brown, Wolves’ head coach, the team is ready to compete this Saturday at the State Cross Country Meet in Valley City.
At the State Meet, the Class B girls will be competing at 1:30 p.m., while the Class B boys will be running at 2:30 p.m.
While the team may have had a break in action, the Watford City girls finished in second place while the boys team finished in eighth place at the Regional Meet last Tuesday in Beulah.
“Our girls and boys still ran hard and I feel that they did an excellent job,” stated Brown. “It is always nice to be fighting for team championships and I feel we ran well.”
The Watford City girls team had four girls, Sibee Jokela, Kade Ross, Stephanie Deutch and Kristen Stenehjem, place in the top 20 runners at Region qualifying them for the All-Region team.
Jokela led the Wolves with a third place finish with a time of 17:14; while Ross took seventh with a time of 17:30. Deutsch finished the race in 13th place while Kristen Stenehjem came in 14th with times of 18:00 and 18:03, respectively.
“When we raced in Beulah on Tuesday, we looked a bit rusty at the end of the race,” stated Brown. “We got out very well, but dropped back as the race continued. We didn’t have our top end speed at the end of the race like we normally do.”
Also placing for Watford City in the girls division was Olivia Sundeen, 25th, 18:48; Marti Quale, 34th, 19:05; and Bessie Schmitz, 49th, 19:57.
In the boys division, according to Brown, it was the first time that he had five runners competing.
“It was the first time for some of our boys to run three miles,” stated Brown. “But they competed very well and ended up in 8th place.”
Jeremiah Beard paced the boys team with a 36th place finish in a time of 21:48, while Ben Gumke took 39th with a time of 21:59. Also placing was Logan Gumke, 53rd, 23:24; Reid Brown, 57th, 23:52; and Riley McCarthy, 59th, 24:06

Killdeer Meet
In their last regular season meet of the season, Watford City’s cross country runners competed on a shortened course in Killdeer.
“We ran very well,” stated Brown. “The runners that had beaten us in Beulah, were now behind us at the finish, so mentally we made some improvements in the two days.”
In the girls 3K race, Kade Ross led the Wolves with a second place finish in a time of 11:56, while Sibee Jokela took third in a time of 11:58. Also placing in the top 10 was Stephanie Deutsch, 7th, 12:22; and Kristen Stenehjem, 9th, 12:37.
In the boys 4K race, Jeremiah Beard finished in 31st place in 18:30 and Riley McCarthy finished 37th in 19:34, while Logan Gumke came in 38th in 19:54. Also placing for the Wolves was Ben Gumke, 40th, 20:12; and Reid Brown, 41st, 20:27.

WATFORD CITY WEATHER