Kennedy Landen finished first in Wednesday’s 2-A Eastern Plains girls cross country championship meet. She smoked the competition, finishing 1:42 ahead of Farmville Central’s Brooke Schwieterman, who earned second place.

Landen, who was voted undisputed conference runner of the year, helped lead the Lady Pack to a conference championship. Plenty of other strong performances from the girls helped push them to the title, too. They had three other top-10 finishers: Michaela Anderson (5th), Fatima Torres (7th), and Anna Frisbie (8th).

“They ran hard. We had several girls that PRed (personal record),” said coach Toby McMahon, who was named conference coach of the year. “Fatima and Anna, their goal was to get up in that five, six, seven range, which they did.”

McMahon also said that Sara Spencer stepped up when a teammate of hers rolled her ankle. Spencer finished 14th.

“We had some injuries and some things we couldn’t control, but the girls stepped up, he said.

The achievement was right in line with the goals Washington had set for its girls. They’re ranked fifth in the conference. The conference championship was but one goal met, and now they have their sights aimed higher.

“They’ve started running their times in practice and started asking, ‘Is this good enough to go to states,” McMahon said. “They’re really kind of been focusing on that now. So, I think they’re hungry for it.”

The boys came just two points from winning their first league title since 1995. Austin Coward had the best Pam Pack performance with a seventh-place finish. Trippe Bonner also placed in the top 10.

They came close to besting Beddingfield, despite having overcome their fair share of challenges along the way. They lost their No. 1 runner earlier in the season. Jacob Smith, the Pam Pack’s new top competitor, was sick during the meet.

“It was two points. It was close,” McMahon. “(Smith) was slated to finish fifth and dropped to 14th. It’s tough when that happens to your top-two runners, but to lose them and still almost win conference, it was close.”

Even though they came close, especially given the circumstances, the close loss was still a tough pill to swallow.

“This was supposed to be the year,” McMahon said. “They’ve trained hard. They’ve stayed focused. They knew going into the season knowing they’re ranked No. 1, but they never had an expectation that it was going to be given. They’ve always known that people are chasing them, and they have to run fast.”

Now the Pam Pack is focusing on next weekend’s regional meet. Like the conference championship, Washington will host it on its home course. McMahon said that the boys and girls will continue training hard throughout the rest of the week before lightening things up a bit next week.