Falcon runners compete in Arizona

While the high school cross country season officially came to an end with Sierra Lutheran High School winning the 2A state championship, several of the team's runners have continued to compete.

Now bearing the name Falcon XC Club, coach Dave Marson has fielded a team of seven athletes for a number of postseason meets.

Marson has continued their work out schedule and even ramped it up a bit to try to be more competitive for these races which bring the more elite runners and teams from around the country.

Last Saturday the team competed in Tempe, Ariz. at the Nike Cross Nationals Southwest Championships 2008 against teams from Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

Many of the teams competing were state champions from their various regions.

A total of 192 athletes and 24 teams comprised the competition.

Each athlete wore an ankle chip bracelet which not only is used for a final time of the race but also provides a one-mile and two-mile time as well as place respectively.

Wade Meddles, who posted the fastest time in the state at any level in the state championships was in 34th after one mile and worked his way up to 10th by the two-mile mark.

He finished third, only 6 seconds behind the first- and second-place runners who were less than a second apart themselves.

This was a good testing ground for Meddles' potential and he proved himself well.

The rest of the team did well, considering the competition level, as with Michael Kubel finished 112th in 17:01, Nathanael Williams was 154th at 17:47, Preston Lyons was 178th at 18:23, Jason Deterding was 186th at 19:22, Nathan Conover was 190th at 20:06 and Ryan Jackson was 192nd at 20:57.

The team finished in 22nd but one has to remember this is essentially a group of runners from a small school competing with teams predominately made up of division 4 and 5 schools.

The Falcon XC club will next be competing at Footlocker West Regional at Mt. SAC in Walnut, Calif., on Dec. 6.