In a meet that turned into a training exercise for Apex and Middle Creek’s cross country teams, each team ran its first 5K of the season last Wednesday at Bond Park, with Apex’s Bryan Noreen finishing first with a time of 18:08.

Both coaches said they planned to use the meet to prepare for the bigger competition in Wilmington over the weekend. But with the looming threat of tropical storm Hanna, neither coach knew exactly how to handle the situation.

Apex coach Roy Cooper decided to run his whole team, believing that Hanna would cancel the meet at Wilmington, while Middle Creek coach John Henderson sat his top runners.

Because of that, and because Apex ran 80 boys and girls compared to Middle Creek’s 11, Cooper decided not to make the results official.

“Middle Creek was not running their top runners, so I’m not calling it in,” Cooper said. “What I’m going to be looking at are the times and the efforts the kids extended — that I was pleased with.”

While Noreen led the whole way, Apex had six runners finish in under 20 minutes. On the girls’ side, Amanda Hamilton finished first with a time of 20:58.

Wednesday’s meet marked the first time either team had run a 5K this year, and Cooper was pleased with what he saw compared to the usual 3Ks.

“Even the younger kids are going to have to get used to running this distance. So I was pleased with what I saw. They were keeping at it,” Cooper said. “Some kids who haven’t been able to finish before, finished today. I saw some kids step up and finish higher up on the team than they had before.”

Because of the possibility of running again over the weekend, Cooper told his team to run at 90 to 95 percent strength.

“I thought everybody looked like they were under control,” Cooper said.

“They were strong, so they had more to give, but it didn’t seem like anybody was running easy.”

Because of the more laid back atmosphere of midweek races, Henderson said he was fine with holding back his top runners and saving them for the possibility of running in Wilmington.

“My top guys ended up doing a pretty intense workout yesterday and a couple of these guys would end up getting inserted if we do race Saturday,” Henderson said.

Matt Smith finished with Middle Creek’s top time of 22:39.

The Wilmington meet was cancelled after all. Henderson said his team is now working toward this weekend’s Wolfpack Invitational in Cary.

“We’re trying to keep the top guys focused on the weekend because the competitions on weekends are a lot bigger,” Henderson said.