Omak High School’s girls cross country team finished second at the Mid-Basin Invitational Sept. 20 at Moses Lake State Park.
     Coach Melody Pecha said the girls ran a phenomenal race led by Chiara Rose-Witt, who finished fourth overall (21:59) in a field of 61 runners.
     Her time was an improvement of a minute and 27 seconds over last year.
     “She was a different runner this week, you could see the determination in her eyes,” coach Pecha said.
     The rest of the team included Rachael Kraske (10th in 23:10; 2:00 improvement), Marcy Harris (17th in 24:21); Danielle Pecha (26th in 25:33); and Ilsa “Gus” Rose-Witt (43rd in 27:45; 2:26 improvement).
     Gus Rose-Witt passed two runners in her final sprint, which lifted Omak into second place by two points over Cashmere (75 to 77 points).
     Ephrata took the team title with 29 points.
     Other runners for Omak included Michelle Reynolds (51st in 29:45) and Georgia Lamb (55th in 30:15), who filled out the team’s seven runners, and Whitney Nordlund (58th in 32:55) and Caralee Henry (59th in 33:08).
     Henry showed the most improvement by cutting 3:48 off her time of a year ago at the race.
     Coach Pecha predicted that the race for second place in the league will be tight between Cashmere and Omak.
     “I believe our girls are up for the challenge,” the coach said.
     The Omak boys continue to show great improvement, coach Pecha said. Michael Goble led the Pioneers with a 19th place finish (19:20) out of 69 runners.
     “He is really learning how to run with the high school boys,” said Pecha of the freshman who tore up the eighth-grade ranks last year.
     Sophomore Kane Pennington, in his first-ever race, was Omak’s second finisher in 35th (20:05).
     Rounding out the team was senior leader Brandon Black (43rd in 20:33; 1:46 improvement), Josh Grey (63rd in 21:42; 2:35 improvement); Dustin Johnson (64th in 22:05).
     In junior varsity, Lance Paul ran his first-ever race, finishing 40th out of 75 runners in 23:00.
     Jason Hammers was 74th in 32:14.
     Omak competes at Liberty Bell on Tuesday, Sept. 23, and at Wenatchee Saturday, Sept. 27.