Jeff Harrison
A rain soaked course at Mitch Park wasn’t enough to slow down the Edmond North girls cross country team on Friday afternoon. The entire Lady Huskies squad finished in the top 20, as they rolled to a first-place finish in 5A/6A varsity race at the Edmond Dog Pack Meet.
“We’re so excited because we beat Westmoore and everyone thought they were going to be awesome,” North senior Ashley Webb said. “They’re always our toughest competition. And today we had all seven of our girls in the top 20 places and that’s the best we’ve ever done.”
North easily won the team battle with 45 points, finishing well ahead of Westmoore, which had a score of 82. Memorial came in third with 89 and Santa Fe was fifth at 137.
“Our kids really got after it today,” North coach Kent Douglass said. “And to win by almost 40 points is huge in cross country. But we’re still going to take it one meet at a time and keep taking care of business.”
Norman’s Megan Johnson won the girls race by nearly 15 seconds, finishing the 3200-meter course in 11:51.
Junior Anna Kimsey led the way for the North girls, placing fifth with a time of 12:31, while Merideth Farley was next through the gate with a time of 12:39. Hannah Helker and Webb stuck together and finished, eighth and ninth respectively. Helker crossed the finish line with a time of 12:44.36 and Webb was just .33 seconds back. Martha Blaess came in 17th place, Taylor Rolfs finished 19th and Megan Watson was 20th.
“I wasn’t concerned as much with times today, but I wanted them to stay together and push to the top and they responded well,” Douglass said.
The Lady Huskies may have won team title, but it was Memorial that produced the top local runner. Sophomore Tara Lewis had her best showing of the year, finishing second with a time of 12:06. Christina Wright also finished in the top 20, as she took 12th (12:49). Raechel Brown was 21st (13:18) and Hannah Robinson was 24th (13:24).
Santa Fe’s top two runners were Rachel Davis and Lexie Crist, who both placed in the top 15. Davis was 14th with a time of 12:56 and Crist was 15th at 13:01. Seniors Alyssa Nale was 33rd (13:40) and Kelsea Wertzberger was 36th (13:42).
All three Edmond schools will be back in action Thursday when they head to the Oklahoma Christian University Invitational.
