Tonasket’s Damon Halvorsen running behind Cashmere’s Roman Velazquez during the cross country district meet on Thursday, Oct. 29. Halvorsen finished the meet in second place with a time of 16:46. Submitted by Bob Thornton

WENATCHEE – After running strong and finishing the district meet in second place, Tonasket’s Damon Halvorsen will be running at the state cross country meet in Pasco on Sun Willows golf course on Saturday, Nov. 7 at noon.

At the district meet on Thursday, Oct. 29 in Wenatchee, Halvorsen improved on last year’s time by 41 seconds to come in second place with a time of 16:46.

“Damon has placed second in seven out of nine different races this year,” Bob Thornton, head coach, said. “This is quite an achievement when you consider all the teams that we ran against and that we have one of the toughest leagues in the state. The boys team placed third, just missing qualifying for the state meet as only the top two teams qualified for state.”

Running with Halvorsen on the boys team were Matt Gschiel, who came in 12th place at 18:10, Jake Hickman, who came in 16th place at 18:34, Corey McCrarey, who came in 20th place at 18:58, Spencer Podkranic, who came in 33rd place at 19:42 and Peter Williams, who came in 34th place at 19:51.

“The girls team, despite being sick and hurt, showed their mental and physical toughness by putting a team together and running through the pain and placed sixth,” Thornton said. “Emmy Hickman ran one of her best races of the season and just missed qualifying for state.”

Hickman finished the race in 17th place with a time of 22:25 while Michelle Carlson finished in 26th place at 23:10, Jessica Spear finished in 30th place at 24:04, Amy Johnson finished in 33rd place at 25:08 and Kablina Kochsmeier finished in 37th place at 28:45.

“All the boys and most of the girls finished the season running their best races and improved their times on this course over last year by 13 to 56 seconds,” Thornton said. “They represented Tonasket well both on and off the course.”