Timberwolves place eighth at boys cross country finals

The Jackson boys cross country team tied for eighth place at the Class 4A state championships Nov. 6 in Pasco.

Five of the Timberwolves’ seven runners set personal records.

Jackson’s top finisher was junior Jeff Helmer, who finished 15th, completing the 3.1-mile course in 15 minutes, 49 seconds. Helmer, who had leg problems during the season, was still able to run a hard race.

“Because of my injury I didn’t think I would do so well,” Helmer said.

Besides Helmer, the rest of the Timberwolves ran well in the race.

“Our team did awesome,” Helmer said. “Everybody ran a perfect race.”

Coach Eric Hruschka agrees that the team ran a great race at the state meet.

“I thought the guys performed very well,” he said. “I was really proud of their performance and how they came together at the end.”

The end of the season is where Jackson showed its true talent. All season, Jackson struggled and worked its way in and out of the top 10 rankings, but in the state championships the Timberwolves exceeded their expectations.

“We were hoping to be in the top 10 and we made it,” Hruschka said.

“It went better than we expected,” senior co-captain Devin Branson said. “We passed all of our expectations and we’re pretty happy about it.”

When the race was over, the Timberwolves were excited about their victory.

“After they caught their breath, everyone was smiling because they knew that they ran their best,” Hruschka said.

“Everybody was pretty happy,” Helmer said. “The morale was really high.”

This was Jackson’s seventh time finishing in the top 10 in state in the school’s nine-year history.

“Last year was the best team we ever had, and then we lost a lot of crucial players, so we weren’t expected to do that good,” Branson said. “In state we performed like we knew we could all season and I think this year’s team was probably the second best team (Jackson has ever seen).”

Not many people could have predicted such a strong finish, but in the end the Wolfpack pulled it off.

“We exceeded our expectations in state and we surprised a lot of people,” Helmer said.