Dogies sweep opening meet

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Excitement was high as the 2020 cross country season got off to a great start last Friday at the Newcastle Country Club golf course. The Dogie and Lady Dogie runners were chomping at the bit to get off the starting line and compete for top honors in their first meet on their home course.
While the ladies don’t have enough runners to field a team, the men do and both the varsity and JV teams showed off in front of Dogie fans by winning their respective races.
“I was really excited to see what the kids could do, especially because of what we’ve been seeing from them so far in practice,” head coach Kathy Beehler began. “They are working hard and are already showing that race mentality that is so important, and the guys certainly proved that they are starting out strong by winning their races.”
Senior Zach Purviance was the first Dogie to cross the finish line, coming in second by less than a second with a time of 18:45.5. Carson Bock was hot on his heels finishing third in 18:48.7. 
“Zach was catching the leader at the end, but he just waited too long to kick,” Beehler described. “He still had a lot of gas in the tank so that was a good learning experience for him which will benefit him as the season progresses.”
Bridger Alishouse finished seventh in 19:51.8, Avery Chick was 13th with a time of 20:41.4, Mathew Drake came in 18th in 22:05.5 and Max Makousky rounded it out for the Dogies finishing in 21st place with a time of 22:19.1.
“We’ll need to get a little stronger, but it was a pretty promising first time out competitively, and they got some things figured out,” Beehler began. “They think they’re hurting but they’re not really. They still have a lot more left than they even know.”
The junior varsity squad also made a good impression as a lot of newbies took the course for the first time running a 5K. Freshman Teegan Hatheway won the race with room to spare, outrunning the second place finisher by 30 seconds. Wyatt Cole, Zander White, and Nathan Strickland were the next guys across the line for the Dogies and all four of them are new to high school cross country.
“Watching our new guys run in the JV race was really fun,” Beehler grinned. “They’re showing great potential and are giving our veterans some competition for those seven varsity spots.”
Unfortunately, the Lady Dogies cannot compete as a team this season because they are one runner short of the five person requirement. However, the four ladies still compete individually.
Seniors Alaina Laurence and Lara Lopez ran in the varsity division and finished 17th and 18th respectively. Laurence clocked in with a time of 29:06.2 while Lopez ended in 29:27.5.
Freshmen Janaya Ralls and Tara Carter also finished together in the JV race. Ralls was third with a time of 27:56.8 and Carter was just behind in fourth place finishing in 27:57.5.
“That was exciting to see those girls do so well because it’s a big jump going from eighth to ninth grade,” Beehler pointed out. “A year ago, they were running 2500 meters, so they doubled that on Friday.”
The team will be headed to Buffalo on Saturday, but the start time is not yet known. Due to COVID restrictions, meets are limited to 112 runners so many of the schools will host two meets in one day — one in the morning and one in the afternoon — to try to accommodate the teams who are attending.