Neil Janson ran a personal best time and Hannah Toedter placed 15th Monday as the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines opened their cross country season in the Morris Invitational.
Janson's 19th place time of 18:23.10 was one minute and 42 seconds faster than his time in the Morris meet last year. Toedter, who represented WDC in the state meet last year for the first time, posted a 16:57.45.
Posting the top times in the varsity races were West Central Area's Kyle Toms (16:48.86) and Minnewaska Area's Madison Sachs (15:29.05).
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle won the boys' team competition with 43 points. The Wolverines were seventh in the 16-team field with 192 points.
WDC's Shane Motschenbacher with 39th in the boys' varsity race with a personal best 19:34.30. Zach Bernu ran almost two minutes faster in placing 45th with a 19:54.85. Tony Ross was right behind Bernu with a 47th place time of 20:02.11. Jacob Snyder improved his time in the Morris meet by 37 seconds to finish 58th with a 20:55.69. Joey Pate finished 73rd with a 21:58.72.
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Lauren Girard also competed in the varsity race for WDC and placed 48th with a time of 18:41.58. Girard's time was a 59 second improvement over her 2008 time.
WDC's Kelsey Browne, a former state qualifier who is battling injuries, notched a nine second victory in the junior varsity meet with an 8:49.24. Bailee Schissel placed 13th for WDC with a 9:36.77.
