MSXC 2012-10-18 at City Beach

The Wildcat United middle school cross country team held their first and only home meet last Thursday at Oak Harbor's City Beach Park.

Hosted by the combined Oak Harbor and North Whidbey Middle School team were Burlington Edison, Mt. Baker and LaVenture Middle Schools from Skagit County.

The Wildcat team had an outstanding day, winning 3 of the 4 races (7th grade boys and girls, 8th grade boys and girls).

Starting with the 7th grade girls, Jenna Cooley finished first in 10:42, followed by a BE runner in 10:51.  The next Wildcat to cross was Taliah Black in 4th and Maggie Fink in 7th.  Also in the race for OH were Stephanie Finch, Brianna Chamberlain, Grace Westcott, Brooke Taylor, Christian Miesle, Trina Plunkett, Inez Jiminez, Kaylie LaCoste, Tamara Plunkett, Morgan Barber and Antoinette Aird.

In the 7th grade boys' race, the true race was for 2nd, as Ryan Vasileff destroyed his competition by finishing in 9:43.  Second place was Oak Harbor's Michael Lym who finished in 10:48.  James Besaw was 3rd in 10:58 and Will Danielson 4th in 10:59.  Ethan Cosper was 7th for the Wildcats.  Also finishing the race for Oak Harbor were Clifford Hartley, Charlie Pabona, Nicolas Hufman, Kurt Husler, Thane Seith, Josh Byers, Dean Martin and Eric Baxter.

Moving to the 8th grade races, Wildcat Carolyn Wicker won a close girl's race in 10:55, just a second in front of the 2nd place finisher from BE, who spoiled the OH sweep, as Wildcat runners filled the next 7 spots.  In 3rd place was Kendall Sloan, then Shea Davis, Tamia Rios, Emma Lerch, Mia Gehrmann, Erica Sugatan and Lauyrn Boekle.  Finishing for OH but not in the top 10 were Kyra McConaghy, Maddy Harstad, Sarah Gartley, Gabrielle Chavez, Paxton Chadwick, Cristina Ferris and Rayne Burbank.

The 8th grade boys race was nearly a photo finish, with the top 2 runners finishing in the same second and 3rd place just a second behind.  Burlington's Trey Meyer clipped the Wildcat's Miguel Guzman just a dozen yards from the finish line to capture the race.  Kenneth Morrow was 3rd for OH, Kegan Snell 6th, Kelly Holt 7th and Joshua Margraf 9th.  Others in the race were Jaycob Callies, Michael Husmann, Alex Hartley, Austin Hauter, Lucas Nickelson and William Nickelson.

Photos from all the races are posted HERE.


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