LIBERAL ? A southwest Kansas high school student won the annual trans-Atlantic pancake race Tuesday, beating the winner of the English leg of the race by more than 10 seconds.

Jessica Lash, an 18-year-old Liberal High School student racing for the first time, won the race with a time of 1 minute, 3.1 seconds.

Jane Hughes, 42, won the English leg of the annual race on Shrove Tuesday, crossing the finish line of the 415-yard (379-meter) course in 1 minute, 13.5 seconds.

Michelle McNabb and Chrissy Davis finished second and third, respectively, in the Liberal race that included a field of 12.

Lash’s time was just a few tenths of a second faster than the winning time in Olney last year, when Andrea Rawlings won in 1 minute, 3.76 seconds, snapping a string of seven straight victories for the United States.

Nearing the finish line, Lash and McNabb were in a dead heat, with griddles and pancakes still in tow.

“It feels good. The race was exhilarating; it was a fun race,” Lash told the Southwest Daily Times after crossing the finishing line, appearing not to have been winded by the run.

Jessica Lash, 18, right, races to win the International Pancake Race during Pancake Day in Liberal. Lash's time of 63.16 seconds for the 415-yard course beat Jane Hughes, who won a similar race Tuesday in Olney, England, handing the international crown to Liberal.

The Shrove Tuesday pancake race is a tradition between the women of Olney, 50 miles northwest of London, and their counterparts in Kansas.

“I just never even dreamt it,” Hughes said, panting with hands on hips after winning the English leg. “You hear all about the pancake race; I never dreamt about winning.”

According to legend, the pancake race began in 1455 when a rushed Olney housewife ran to Shrove Tuesday church services still carrying a pancake in a frying pan.

Liberal asked to make the race an international friendly competition in 1950 and now leads the series 32-25.

Shrove Tuesday, widely known as Pancake Day in Britain, marks the last day of merrymaking before the start of Lent. Christians traditionally consider pancakes to be a good way to indulge in the excesses they are supposed to forgo during the fasting period.