Lady ‘Cats earn fourth consecutive regional berth

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The Whiteoak Lady ‘Cats cross country team earned its fourth consecutive regional berth on Saturday morning as they competed in the Southeast District DIII cross country race and placed fourth out of eight teams to move on.

“Trying to keep tally of eight different teams in contention during the actual race was difficult and I honestly thought we were edged out for the fourth qualifying spot,” said Lady ‘Cats coach Doug Hughes after the race. “It was a very competitive race and very little space between second place and fifth place. As the top four teams were announced we were pretty down until we heard that we were indeed the fourth place team and then the jubilation hit mixed with some teary emotions. We work all season for the district race with our number one team goal for the season of advancing to the regional meet. The surprise of the results made it all worth it. Each and every girl upped their game and gutted it out. We even had two girls run their best times of the year and the Rio course is simply not a course set up to get a personal best.”

Ashleigh Harless finished 8th overall with a time of 22:20 to lead the Lady ‘Cats and earn first team All-District. Kattie Taylor was next at 19th place running her best time ever at 23:15. Maggie Carr was 26th overall at 24:23 and Morgan Thompson 34th place at 25:05. Regan Bohrer was 44th at 26:34 and Katie Ames 57th with a time of 28:14.

“We had some things we couldn’t control go against us but the girls never flinched and did it again,” Hughes said. “This is about as proud as I’ve ever been of one of my teams. This is the 5th trip overall for Whiteoak to the regionals and today we had a better average time than any of the previous other 4 teams. Today was very stressful but ended up perfectly and next week at Pickerington North we are going to have a blast representing our school, league and district.

Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.

The Whiteoak High School girls cross country team is pictured after placing fourth in the district cross country meet at Rio Grande on Saturday.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2015/10/web1_XCountry.jpgThe Whiteoak High School girls cross country team is pictured after placing fourth in the district cross country meet at Rio Grande on Saturday. submitted photo

By Robert Stegbauer

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