Whiteoak Lady 'Cats qualify for regionals for 3rd straight year
Lead Summary
By
The Highland County Press-
In the eighth and final race on Saturday, the Whiteoak Lady Wildcats achieved what they had set out to do all season … earn their third consecutive Division III Regional berth.
As the wind picked up throughout the day, the course became slower, but the Whiteoak girls never flinched as they ran their way to a third-place team finish in the Southeast District Division III race.
Leading the way for Whiteoak was sophomore Morgan Thompson, who finished 10th (22:48).
Sophomore teammate Taylor Tackett finished 15th (23:54), and both girls earned first team All-District honors by finishing in the Top 16.
Manchester was first overall with a team score of 26. Adena was second with 39, followed by Whiteoak with 59, and Huntington took the final regional spot with a score of 97.
Coach Doug Hughes was elated with his girls' performance.
"We knew coming into the year we had a good chance to advance as we had everyone back from last year's team and we added another very good runner," Hughes said. "In my 11 years, we've only had one All-District runner but we had two this year.
"A lot of teams are injured, burnt out or banged up this time of year, and we simply were none of those things. The girls work hard, do what is asked of them and are peaking at the right time. Good things are happening to great kids. We can't wait for next Saturday at Pickerington."
Also in the race, Fairfield had two runners, with Maggie Donahue finishing with a time of 28:01.46 and Haleigh Bates with a time of 31:12.65.