The White Oak Cross Country runners competed in the Mike Darby Invitational Meet hosted by Pine Tree on Friday, September 20th. Ally Tatum led the girls with a 17th place finish in a time of 14:11. Sophie Fisher,15:34.2, edged out teammate Lizzy Still, 15:34.4 by a toe for 78th and 79th places respectively out of 165 runners. The boys finished 9th out of 23 teams led by junior Niko Soto in 25th place in a time of 18:19. Soto was followed by Cooper Tucker in 41st, 19:03, Isaak Olvera, 59th, 19:38, and Logan Langewisch, 61st, 19:42. Luke Bueno, 95th, 20:46, rounded out the team scoring for the Roughnecks. Nathan Stringer finished in 101st for a time of 20:58 was followed by Nathan Watson, 110th, 21:25, and Kaleb Glenn 144th, 22:52, out of 192 runners. The district meet will be held on this course in three weeks. This was a good opportunity to race the course. Traditionally, this is one of the tougher courses of the year with a variety of terrain and hilly spots. The Ladynecks and Roughnecks competed well on a challenging course after a short week of training. There will be one more meet to fine tune a few things before the district meet on October 10th.

The junior high runners competed on Saturday, September 21st at the Mike Darby JH Invitational Meet held at Pine Tree Stadium. Korlyn Caton started the morning off finishing in 18th place on the two mile course in 17:19 out of 125 runners. In the eighth grade girls race Maddie Hart finished in 21st place in a time of 17:29 and Piper Watson finished in 107th, 23:56, out of 118 runners. In the seventh grade boys race Colsen Still finished in 101st place in a time of 26:50 for the two mile course out of 107 runners. In the eighth grade boys race Michael Lee complete the course in 18:03 for 89th place out of 142 runners. The high school and junior runners will compete in the Union Grove meet on Saturday, September 28th. This will be their last regular season race before the district meet.