5A Boys
There is now a new state record for lowest team score at the 5A meet -- St. Thomas Aquinas, by going 1-2-3-4 and putting another runner scoring 12 (13th place), won with 22 points, beating out Bishop Carroll's record of 30 set in 2013. Each ran at least a small bit faster than they ran at the Rim Rock, and the #3 and #4 10-15 seconds faster to contribute to the dominating finish. Their margin of victory overlooked a solid race by Blue Valley Southwest, who finished second with 92 points. Their two in the top ten proved to be too much to overcome -- Bishop Carroll did have a good pack with a 36 second spread and beat BVSW at #3 and #4 -- but only by one point each, and Carroll ended up third with 108 points. Mill Valley had an even tighter pack -- a 27 second 1-5 spread -- but was just a bit too far behind Carroll's pack for it to make a difference; and Andover had a very good race but was a #5 runner away from being able to knock off Carroll and/or Mill Valley.
Individually, as mentioned above, Aquinas went 1-2-3-4, and though there were a few more runners within 15 seconds of them than at their regional, they finished the same order -- senior Michael Shanahan (15:48), junior Will Cole (16:01), senior Daniel Petracek (16:15), and junior Alex Gill (16:15). It was the second top-five 5A finish for Shanahan (4th in 2013) and Petracek (5th last year), and the first for Cole and Gill, though they were 11th and 17th, respectively, a year ago. Alex Moen of Andover came very close to breaking up the pack -- after Gill passed him on the skyline, he came just short of coming back to pass Gill at the very end, and placed fifth in 16:16. The next pack of runners was 9 seconds back, led by Salina South junior Josh Reed, who ran a 16:25 for sixth place, his second 5A State medal of his career.
Top Five Teams:
| Place | Team | Points | Scorers | Times | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 22 | 1+2+3+4+12 (41+46) | 0:54 1-5 Split | 16:12 Avg | ||
| 2 | Blue Valley Southwest | 92 | 7+9+21+24+31 (44+73) | 0:51 1-5 Split | 16:54 Avg | ||
| 3 | Bishop Carroll Catholic High School | 108 | 14+16+20+23+35 (39+40) | 0:36 1-5 Split | 17:03 Avg | ||
| 4 | Mill Valley High School | 117 | 17+19+25+26+30 (43+50) | 0:27 1-5 Split | 17:06 Avg | ||
| 5 | Andover High School | 124 | 5+13+22+27+57 (59+65) | 1:41 1-5 Split | 17:04 Avg | ||
Medalists (Top 20):
| Place | Athlete | Team | Result | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shanahan, Michael | 12 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 15:48.50 | 1 | |
| 2 | Cole, Will | 11 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 16:01.30 | 2 | |
| 3 | Petracek, Daniel | 12 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 16:15.00 | 3 | |
| 4 | Gill, Alex | 11 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 16:15.90 | 4 | |
| 5 | Moen, Alex | 11 | Andover High School | 16:16.40 | 5 | |
| 6 | Reed, Josh | 11 | Salina South High School | 16:25.20 | 6 | |
| 7 | Wilson, Matthew | 12 | Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School | 16:25.30 | -- | |
| 8 | Eastham, Tristan | 12 | Blue Valley Southwest | 16:28.30 | 7 | |
| 9 | Flores, Greg | 12 | Leavenworth High School | 16:29.30 | 8 | |
| 10 | Miller, Dylan | 10 | Blue Valley Southwest | 16:29.80 | 9 | |
| 11 | Podlena, Dawson | 11 | Seaman High School | 16:38.60 | 10 | |
| 12 | Kossover, Ethan | 11 | Maize South High School | 16:41.20 | 11 | |
| 13 | Lebourveau, Andrew | 10 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 16:43.00 | 12 | |
| 14 | Hawkins, Connor | 12 | Andover High School | 16:45.30 | 13 | |
| 15 | Hesse, Wayne | 10 | Bishop Carroll Catholic High School | 16:48.80 | 14 | |
| 16 | Merriman, Bryce | 10 | Maize South High School | 16:49.30 | 15 | |
| 17 | Becker, Paul | 12 | Bishop Carroll Catholic High School | 16:50.00 | 16 | |
| 18 | Meeks, Derek | 12 | Mill Valley High School | 16:52.40 | 17 | |
| 19 | Loeffler, Robert | 12 | Newton High School | 16:54.50 | 18 | |
| 20 | Fields, Garret | 12 | Mill Valley High School | 16:55.20 | 19 | |
3A/5A/6A State Meet Race Recaps: