Hale, Schaffner lead Iowa Park to team title
Iowa Park High School freshmen Bethany Hale and Shalee Schaffner combined with a one-two finish Saturday to lead the Lady Hawk cross country team to their first title at the Third Annual Iowa Park Invitational Cross Country Meet.

Hale finished in first place with a time of 12:43.98, while Schaffner finished runner-up with a time of 13:02.95.

Teammates Lilah Gilmore finished ninth (13:59.36), Aliza Jensen 11th (14:24.40), Candace McFadden 16th (15:05.70), and Amber Dressler 27th (18:48.42).

The Lady Hawks finished ahead of second place City View, followed by Wichita Falls Old High and Crowell.

“I thought we ran a pretty good race,” said Coach Ricky Ledford.

“I don’t know if it’s our best race times,” he added. “There wasn’t a whole lot of competition to run against. It was a fairly small meet. Still, to win it was good. We won it fairly handily. We could have run better times, I think. I don’t know if we ran as hard as in Seymour last week. We’ll have a little better test Saturday at the Rider meet.”

The Hawk runners, meanwhile, had only three athletes competing with Justin Persick finishing 14th in the three-mile event (20:18.69), Sean Fischer 24th (21:56.74), and Eric Gentry 32nd (23:53.39).

“The boys have been kinda banged up,” said Ledford. “We’ve had several injuries on their side from hip flexors to shin splints. They have to work to get healthy. I know they can run better. We have time before district to make that happen.

The Lady Hawks will see a more challenging field Saturday at the Rider Invitational Meet at Lake Wichita Park, including a strong Seymour team led by Julie Holub, the only runner who has beaten both Schaffner and Hale.

“I don’t know if they will have the same course or not (as the earlier MSU Mustang Meet at Lake Wichita),” said Ledford. “I want the girls to go and get Seymour. They are probably right now the leading cross country program in our area. That is a big motivation for us, and a good measuring stick to compete against a good team.

“They (Seymour) are looking to go to state,” he added. “Every good team should. I’m just looking for this next meet that everybody do their best, not hold anything back, learn to race, and run hard.”