Another season of Washington Demon cross country is underway. A pair of all-conference runners return for head coach Steve Roth this season in senior Emme Keith and junior Owen Horak.

Keith ended last season in 21st place in the district meet, running 2.5 miles in a season best time of 16:25. Roth is very excited to have Keith back this fall, and says she has a chance to end her career at the state meet. “She was 21st last season and they took they took the top 10 runners to state.” Roth said, “They added five more runners this year, so they are taking 15 to the state meet this fall. We believe she can be the top girl in the area.”

One challenge Keith and the rest of the girls team will have to adjust to is runner a longer distance in 2015. The Board of the Directors of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union voted unanimously in January to increase the distance of Iowa girls high school cross country meets from 4,000 meters (2.5 miles) to 5,000 meters (3.1 miles). This is the first change in distance running for girls cross country since 2002 when the distance was increased from 2 miles to 2.5 miles.

For Horak, his season best time came at the conference meet in Mount Pleasant, finishing eighth overall with a time of 18:50. The top 10 runners at the conference meet earned all-conference recognition.

Roth had a group of runners log 25-30 miles a week since the beginning of July to prepare for the upcoming season. The Demons’ first competition is set for September 1, competing in the Iowa Mennonite School’s meet.