By Coleman Johnson
The rain did not faze the Lincoln High Cross Country Team as they ran for the first meet of the season Friday, August 24th at Pioneers Park. This was their time trial meet to set the pace for the rest of the season, and if their performance was any indication of things to come, you’re going to want to keep an eye on them.
As a young team this year they are excited to get things under way. Coach Jon Dawson said, “There are a few freshmen running in the first meet as varsity, including Mackenzie Healey, Mackenzie Cline and Mariana Ossenkop for the girls and Jordan Smith on the boys team.” He added that varsity can change week by week depending on the performance of each athlete.
Lincoln High has a number of returning runners, including sophomore Rebecca Vanneman who qualified for state last year as a freshman and sophomore Frank Cuddy who, according to Dawson, narrowly missed qualifying for state last year. There are several other returning runners to watch on the girls’ team like Ami Naff, Elizabeth Yost, Hana McMahon-Cole, and Cassidy Taladay. For the boys, “Adrian St. Martin, Rawson Ngoh, Douglas Tesch and Joseph Carlson look to be much improved,” Dawson said.
Judging from the results of the time trial, the season looks promising for the Lincoln High Cross Country Team. The top boys time for this meet was set by Frank Cuddy at a time of 17:39. The top girls time was 17:30 set by Rebecca Vanneman.
