(Atlantic) The Atlantic Cross Country team is preparing for two cross country meets this week.
The first is the Tri-Center meet that has been moved to Shenandoah High School. Atlantic Head Coach Dan Vargason says the wet weather has created a lot of uncertainty so far this season.
Both the boys’ and girls’ teams are coming off fourth-place finishes in the Class A Division at the Ballard meet one week ago. Mason Betts had the top showing for the girls’ and the boys’ team with a runner-up finish in a time of 17:06.6, just six seconds behind the winner, Cooper Briggs of Des Moines Roosevelt.
On the girls’ side, Kaitlyn Hickman had the top finish in 14th place (21:46.4), while Gabrielle Engler was 16th (21:51.1). Lucy Northwick was 21st (22:29.0); Ximena Mendez-Cordero 36th; Saige Coffman 37th; Cambry Van Ert 39th. There were 81 girls in the race. Vargason says Hickman is running with confidence.
Coach Vargason says the challenge for the boys is who will break out, get closer to Mason Betts, and erase that two-minute spread. He says the mission for the girls is to move up in the pack if they are going to compete with the other teams.
The meet starts at 4:30 this afternoon at Shenandoah. The Trojans will compete at Harlan on Saturday.
