Cross Country sweeping competition

There’s a herd of teenagers that can sometimes be seen jogging throughout Leavenworth in the early afternoon.  They make up the Cascade cross country team. 

This group of stampeding tweens have taken on the beginning of the season with vigor and it is showing in the results of their invitationals.

Not stopping to catch their breath, the team continues trekking ahead racking up an impressive track record. Several students placing at these races is becoming a promising pattern for the cross country team.

 Tuesday, Sept. 18 and Saturday, Sept. 22 the team didn’t break the steady pace of placing at invitationals.

At the Moses Lake Invitational, the first for the team, the boys varsity took second place out of 19 teams, even with the absence of their senior team captain, Will Cassayre who was competing in a triathlon elsewhere. 

Sophomore, Landon Davies took first place and freshman, Owen Bard took second and as for girls', sophomore Zoe McDevitt finished fifth place with a time of 21:27. 

“We comfortably came out ahead of our league rivals Cashmere and Omak, which speaks well for our chances in the league meet in late October,” said head coach Dayle Massey. 

The South Whidbey Invitational produced not carbon copy results, but still maintained an impressive delivery by the team. 

McDevitt finished ninth out of 95 girls in the varsity race. On the boys' end, despite front runner, Davies, suffering a minor leg injury, the team placed 13 out of 21 teams due to a strong run by freshman, Bard, who placed 5th on a 5k course and is blossoming to be notable on the team.

“It is encouraging to see these incredible performances from our freshmen -— we have quite a future ahead of us,” said Massey. 

The Sept. 18, Okanogan Invitational, only highli  boys varsity took first place while both junior varsity boys and girls won the JV races. 

Davies and Bard repeated as 1-2 and according to Massey, Cassayre is coming on strong as the #3 runner. McDevitt also performed well again and finished in second place for the varsity girls race. 

“We had some great results in Okanogan,” said Massey. “A very successful meet overall — great results and many 5k personal records set.”

At the Wenatchee Invitational, Saturday, Sept. 22, a sudden strike of illnesses caused the team to limp out on placing well. 

A large group of girls didn’t run along with Davies and Derek Richardson. But according to Massey, Bard finished strong again and finished in 7th place overall while McDevitt continues to run strong, finishing in 8th place overall.