The Washington Demon cross country team runs at the conference meet tonight in Keokuk.

Washington is a young team that has still found a way to be competitive through the middle of the pack in meets.

For the boys Austin Latchem has been consistently the top runner, being a veteran leader for the boy’s team and finishing in the top quarter of the runners at most meets.

For the girl’s team it is the youth that have taken the lead with Emme Keith and Mariah Howard finishing one, two at many meets and consistently competing for a top 25-30 spot at meets they run in.

Head coach Steve Roth said both teams are young and set their goals for grabbing third place as a team on both sides in a meet that the champions will be between Ft. Madison and Mt. Pleasant.

“You have to be realistic, the kids are very smart, and I just got done telling them that I appreciate all that they’ve done and there are a lot of people sitting at home on their fannies watching T.V. and all of that stuff, and I have 42 kids out there working their tails off and I do appreciate it very much, but we have to be realistic,” Roth said. “Girl’s side, Mt. Pleasant is one of the states quality teams, followed by Ft. Madison and then Fairfield, we haven’t beat those three teams all year. Boy’s side we have beaten Fairfield and we have beaten Keokuk, so we really think we have a shot at third place.”

The field for the boy’s is; No. 15 Ft. Madison, Mt. Pleasant, Keokuk, Washington and Farifield, and for the girls; No. 9 Mt. Pleasant, Ft, Madison, Keokuk Washington and Fairfield.

The Demons will run the Southeast conference meet tonight at Keokuk with the first race at 5 P.M.