With up to 80 Upper School students home sick some days last week, CWA’s athletes are working hard to stay healthy in the fall post-season.  The cross-country team has been the hardest hit.  The Tarriers dominated league competition all season and the boys team was ranked number one in the state all fall, but at the West Central Tri-District meet last weekend they had to fight hard just to get to state as a team.

Leading up to Saturday’s meet, three of the team’s top runners – seniors Max LaBerge, Will Livingston and David Dennis – stayed home sick all week.  They were healthy enough to run by Saturday, but they weren’t running as fast as usual.  Cross-country truly is a team sport.  A varsity team has seven runners and the scores of the top five finishers count toward the team score.  The first place finisher earns one point for his team, the second place runner earns two, and so on.  The team with the lowest number of points wins the meet.  On Saturday, it fell to junior Nick Flood, senior Harrison Salton, freshmen Ruben Riordan and freshman David Goldstone to keep the team’s state championship dreams alive.

Riordan came in 12th, Goldstone 20th, Nick Flood 43rd, Harrison Salton 72nd, Livingston 88th and Dimmer 98th.

LaBerge finished fourth with a time of 16:28.3, well off his usual finish.  Livingston took 88th and Dimmer took 98th, the sixth and seventh finishers for CWA.  Riordan and Goldstone “ran exceptionally well” according to coach Ryan Johnson and finished in 12th and 20th places respectively.  Flood finished 43rd.  “The reason the team made state though belongs to Harrison” said Johnson.  “He started the meet as our seventh runner and finished as our fifth runner, setting a personal best by three seconds and securing a trip to state for the third year in a row.”  In the end, the CWA boys squad finished in sixth place capturing the very last berth to state by only five points over King’s.

The girls team finished ninth at the tri-district meet.  Junior Emily Harper led the team with a time of 21:00.7 and a 13th place finish.  Senior Sarah Lee finished 26th, sophomore Rie Nordestgaard 27th, senior Karolina Koperwas 50th, junior Jean Kim 77th, junior Sophie Doumit 82nd and sophomore Brooke Murphy 90th.

On Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7, LaBerge, Livingston, Dennis, Riordan, Goldstone, Flood and Slaton will compete in the state track meet in Pasco.  Freshman Jack Dimmer will go as an alternate.  Harper and Lee will compete in the girls race as individuals.