With Regionals only three weeks away, teams and individuals continued to work, improve and strive for great performances in the sport of cross country. Multiple Twin Valley League teams converge together in Centralia to race against each other at the Centralia, while Jefferson County North and Horton from the area competed, also with a few non-area teams, too.

Grabbing the top spot on the day was the Lady Chargers of Jefferson County North and the Washington County Tiger boys as both teams captured first place team performances on the day. On the girl’s side, Washington County and Onaga followed JCN in second and third place. Pair of TVL teams followed Washington County in boys’ team performances with Wetmore and Frankfort taking second and third place, while JCN boys placed fourth.

While the top team performances went to area teams the top individual spots in both the boys and girls race went to a runner from Pike Valley, but there were a multitude of top area individual performances on the day.

In the girls competition leading the way for the area was sophomore, Carissa McAfee who took home second place (17:16) only four seconds behind first place. McAfee was joined by senior, Laramie Leakey in the top 10, as she grabbed a sixth place finish (18:08), while freshman, Julie Schrick finished tenth with time of 18:59.

The only other girls team to notch multiple top 10 finishers was the Onaga Buffalos as freshman, Maggie Revell and Alexis VanDonge notched a fourth and fifth place finish, respectively with times of 17:54 and 18:01.

Host Centralia Panthers saw freshman, Sadie Jones race her way to a third place finish on her home course posting a time of 17:36. Washington County, Valley Heights and Axtell each had an top 10 finishers on the day, too. For the Tigers it was junior, Madison Stone taking seventh (18:40), for Valley Heights Mustangs freshman, Ilexus Rose placed eighth (18:55) and Axtell junior, Susan Peschel notching ninth place (18:59).

In the boys competition it was Washington County grabbing the best individual area performer and only other area team to have multiple top 10 finishers, along with Pike Valley. Leading the way for the Tigers junior, Dylan Hodgson took home second place posting a time of 16:17, while his freshman teammate, Eric Miller notched tenth place posting a time 18:21.

Rounding out the top five for the boys top performances at the Centralia Invite was runners from Axtell, Frankfort and JCN. Axtell Eagle senior, Tracy Schmitz paced the Eagles on the day finishing third place with a time of 16:51. For the Wildcats of Frankfort, Adam Koch continued his strong season notching fourth place (17:24), while JCN Charger junior, Devon Wilson posted a time of 17:39 for fifth.

TVL teams Valley Heights, Onaga and Wetmore all grabbed top 10 performances on the day. The Mustangs were paced by freshman, Adrian Pishny who placed seventh (17:54), while Onaga Buffalo, Michael Eisenbarth followed him in eighth place (18:10). Wetmore Cardinal senior Josh Ballenger registered a ninth place finish with a time of 18:16.

All the area teams saw top 20 finishes on the day at the Centralia Invite and had solid performances to build upon the final stretch of the regular season.

Full 2013 Centralia Cross Country Invite -- click here