Middle School sports get started

The Middle Schools offer 4 sports seasons, with the first and last season single-sports seasons. They start with Cross Country and end with Track. This year, due to budget cuts, the two middle schools have combined for a single Oak Harbor cross country team.

Last Wednesday was the first meet, held at Pt. Susan Middle School in Stanwood. The Oak Harbor Sports Report couldn't be there, but we now have results! I would love to include all the athletes' first names, but the results I received only include first initials. Sorry.

Starting with the 7th grade boys, Oak Harbor had one runner in the top 10 - C. Johnson who finished in 4th place with a time of 9:03, just 13 seconds after the winner. Other 7th grade runners for the boys were T. Peterschmidt, N. Wagner, T. Horton, A. James, T. Sanders, C. Edwards, R. Harrison and H. Miller.

The 8th grade boys had two top-10 finishers in W. Homola (2nd) and H. Kaltenbach (3rd). Homola finished the course in 8:48 and Kaltenbach was only a second behind at 8:49. Other finishers were J. Knoll, M. Cross, M. Frank, Z. Hasting, J. Kurfis, T. Taylor, Q. Guillermo, K. Turner, D. Kusnick, B. Benz, S. Gianguzzo and S. Jappert. Due to the combined efforts of the runners, Oak Harbor, as a team, finished in 1st place with 61 points, 10 point ahead of 2nd place Conway.

The 7th grade girls team also did well, with O. Meyer nabbing 1st place, followed by A. Laiblin in 3rd and A. Leete in 8th. H. Kagey, and J. Maier also competed, and even with a small team, the good running pushed the girls into a 1st place team finish, just 3 points ahead of Langley.

Finally, the 8th grade girls. The Oak Harbor team was unable to place anyone in the top 10, but finished enough runners to earn points, putting them ahead of 4 other teams. First for the Oak Harbor team was C. Wicker, then T. Nienhuis, A. McLoud, H. Hamamoto, C. Kenny, E. Adkins and K. Rankin. Wicker, Nienhuis and McLoud finished as a group, only 3 second separating their times.

While our runners may not have always been the fastest, there were 34 kids out there doing their best and having fun. In our view, they're all winners for just going out and trying, especially when it's so easy to just go home and watch TV or play computer games.

Next for the middle school runners is a meet this Thursday at Sedro-Woolley. On October 15th, Oak Harbor will be hosting their only home meet of the season at Wirth Farm off Boon Road. Come on out, brave the cool fall air, and cheer for our kids. It's FREE!!!