The Greenbrier West Cavaliers are preparing for the Coalfield Conference Cross Country Championships on Thursday, October 15, at Twin Falls State Park.
With strong recent finishes and personal bests among their season highlights, West’s runners enter the meet with plenty to build on.
Hosted by Wyoming East High School, the championships will bring runners to the park’s ball field, with the varsity girls racing at 4 p.m. and the varsity boys following at 4:45 p.m.
Senior Jesse Walkup brings an impressive stretch of racing into Coalfields. Walkup recorded a personal-best 5,000-meter time of 18:17.1 at the Westside Invitational on September 26, placing third. He followed that performance with a victory at the Richwood Cherry Hill Invitational on October 6, finishing in 19:10.5. Most recently, he placed fifth at the Spartan Invitational on October 10, covering the 4,000-meter course in 14:20.0.
For fellow senior Dominic Mandeville, this season has been a story of perseverance as he returns to competition following knee surgery.
Mandeville opened his season with a 24:59.6 finish at Big Ditch Lake and lowered his 5,000-meter season best to 21:18.4 at Westside—an improvement of more than three minutes and 40 seconds. He finished the Spartan Invitational’s 4,000-meter race in 16:57.4, adding another race to his comeback season as he prepares for the conference meet.
Freshman Julian Turpin has made a promising start to his high school cross country career.
After running 23:14.2 at PikeView on October 3, Turpin improved to a personal-best 21:49.3 at Richwood just three days later, placing 15th. That improvement of nearly a minute and 25 seconds was followed by a 16:40.9 finish over 4,000 meters at the Spartan Invitational.
On the girls’ side, freshman Kaylee Walkup brings valuable racing experience from her first high school season. She earned a ninth-place finish and a personal-best 5,000-meter time of 28:34.8 at Westside, then placed 10th at Richwood in 28:57.2. At the Spartan Invitational, she completed the 4,000-meter course in 21:44.6.
Although times from different distances and courses cannot be compared directly, those recent performances provide a look at the Cavaliers’ progress heading into Thursday’s competition. For West’s seniors, Coalfields offers another opportunity to make their final season count. For its freshmen, it is a chance to build experience on the conference stage.
The course tour is scheduled for 3–4 p.m. Admission is $5 per person or $15 per carload, and concessions will be available.
Individual medals will be awarded to the top 25 runners. As the Cavaliers head to Twin Falls, they carry a season’s worth of challenges, improvement and determination—and another opportunity to represent Greenbrier West with pride.
