Harriers take flight at first meet in Malta

The Dodson-Whitewater Harriers had a completely new team at the Malta Athletic Club Invitational held last Saturday at the Marian Hills Golf Course.

The conditions were hotter than usual but that didn’t stop the young Harriers from giving it their all.

“We were told it was going to be nice and cool,” Harrier junior Karly Santillan told the PCN, noting that the team was excited at the time. “But I guess we’re kind of used to having hot practices.”

Harriers coaches Tom Anderson and Bruce Warren walked the course earlier in the meet. The most notable detail about the course was that it was different than last year’s meet.

“It was a good walkthrough,” Anderson said. “I did the walk with two runners, who had never been here before. They seem to be fine with the course and they said it felt good under their feet.”

Tyrese Messerly finished with the fastest time for the boys, with a time of 21:53.

Jasper Doney was able to run a majority of the course and ended with a time of 26:36. He shared his reflections on his first meet of his high school career.

“It’s not as bad as I thought it was,” Doney said. “I think I did good. My goal was I didn’t want to be dead last and I wasn’t.”

Freshman Bella Lawless finished at 30:32, Santillan finished at 30:57 and junior Serena Sanguins finished at 42:34.

“I think it went pretty good,” Santillan said. “I didn’t walk at all, kept a good pace and didn’t die.”

Running together during the race, Lawless was having an issue with her leg cramping up. Santillan offered words of encouragement.

“I told her to ‘just keep pushing, we are fighting against ourselves,” Santillan said. “We made some goals before we ran and our goals were not to finish last and not to walk. We came in right behind each other.”

Santillan admitted that cross country wasn’t her favorite sport but she joined the team with an open mind.

“I hate running but I just decided to try something new and it gets fun,” Santillan said. “We’ve talked to a couple of other girls before we ran because we were so nervous. They told us the first mile is always the best, the second not so much and the last one gets fun when you’re done.”