This past Saturday the cross country team competed in their last race of the season. Cross country competitors at the Chisolm Regional Meet raced in forty-mile per hour wind and temperatures in the nineties on Saturday, October 14th.  Canton had six high school girls take on the challenge and complete the two-mile course. They competed against runners from nearly forty different schools.  Of the schools at this regional, Canton was ranked eleventh going into the race.  Seven teams and the next seven individuals qualify for the state meet.  The Canton team ended up with the ninth-place team in Class 2A, beating teams including Laverne and Mooreland who had previously beaten them.

LaShayla Green led the team, as she has all year, with a 16th place finish out of 153.  Arianna Green, who was struggling with asthma with the dust and allergen-filled air, bravely finished in 48th.  Roxey Linder, who ran her best race this season, finished 64th.  Taylor Dowell, Hanna Noble, and Keely Green finished as the team’s 4th, 5th, and 6th runners.  

Coach Dowell was very proud of all of her runners this season and said, “These athletes competed in one of the most grueling sports available, distance running.  It takes a lot of self-discipline and motivation to push yourself when you are hurting and exhausted, and these runners showed that they have the heart to do just that.  We set a goal to try to beat teams that I knew we could beat if each girl gave it their all, and they came through.”

The season is over for all runners from Canton except for one, the lone senior LaShayla Green.  She was the fifth of the top seven runners not on qualifying teams to qualify for state as an individual from the Chisolm Regional in Class 2A.  She will go for gold at the State Cross Country Meet to be held at Shawnee next Saturday, October 21st.