5A Girls
It was not quite the 15 or 19 point scores we have seen the last two years from St. Thomas Aquinas' girls, but a 1-2-3 finish followed by two more top-16 finishes was enough to allow the Saints to dominate yet again with 30 points; Blue Valley Southwest packed their scorers between 13th and 29th (including 2 medalists) with a 42 second spread, to finish well ahead of the rest of the 5A field with 90 points. After Blue Valley Southwest was close. St. James Academy had three medalists and two in the top ten -- but so did Lansing, and they packed their #3-#5 far enough ahead of St. James' #4 runner to take 3rd place by 1 point, 118-119. Lansing's unexpected (by me at least) 5-9 finish was (one thing) what allowed them to beat out three teams I considered to be locks for top-five finishes.
Individually, as expected, sophomore Margarett Pigott of Aquinas took the victory unchallenged with a time of 18:41, to improve upon her close runner-up finish to her teammate last year. Freshman Olivia Sovereign contributed to the dominating tradition of Aquinas by taking second in the only other sub-19:00 of the race, 18:55; and their teammate senior Olivia Rode closed the gap big-time on them to finish third in 19:09, still well ahead of the rest of the pack. It would have been interesting to see if a healthy Eskridge would/could have stuck with any of those three runners. In fourth place was Kelsi Andrews of Kapaun Mount Carmel, who led the chase pack with a time of 19:35; she was finally able to improve her placing after getting 6th in both 2013 and 2014. Lansing's Jaci Huckabee was able to outkick the St. James duo of Boucher and Jones, to finish fifth with a time of 19:44.
Top Five Teams:
| Place | Team | Points | Scorers | Times | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 30 | 1+2+3+10+14 (26+27) | 1:25 1-5 Split | 19:22 Avg | ||
| 2 | Blue Valley Southwest | 90 | 11+16+20+21+22 (31+50) | 0:45 1-5 Split | 20:25 Avg | ||
| 3 | Lansing High School | 118 | 4+8+33+36+37 (53+70) | 1:33 1-5 Split | 20:40 Avg | ||
| 4 | St. James Academy | 119 | 5+6+17+44+47 (54+56) | 2:05 1-5 Split | 20:41 Avg | ||
| 5 | Valley Center High School | 151 | 13+28+29+40+41 (52+82) | 1:34 1-5 Split | 20:59 Avg | ||
Medalists (Top 20):
| Place | Athlete | Team | Result | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pigott, Margaret | 10 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 18:41.20 | 1 | |
| 2 | Sovereign, Olivia | 9 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 18:55.30 | 2 | |
| 3 | Rode, Olivia | 12 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 19:09.30 | 3 | |
| 4 | Andrews, Kelsi | 11 | Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School | 19:35.40 | -- | |
| 5 | Huckabee, Jaci | 10 | Lansing High School | 19:44.30 | 4 | |
| 6 | Boucher, Gabrielle | 11 | St. James Academy | 19:45.90 | 5 | |
| 7 | Jones, Judi | 12 | St. James Academy | 19:48.10 | 6 | |
| 8 | Mortensen, Sierra | 11 | Maize South High School | 19:52.80 | 7 | |
| 9 | Briggs, Stacy | 9 | Lansing High School | 19:57.10 | 8 | |
| 10 | Slatten, Camryn | 11 | Liberal High School | 19:58.00 | 9 | |
| 11 | Nelson, Alyssa | 9 | Eisenhower High School | 19:58.90 | -- | |
| 12 | Hopfinger, Abbey | 12 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 19:59.80 | 10 | |
| 13 | Misse, Piper | 12 | Blue Valley Southwest | 20:00.70 | 11 | |
| 14 | Schoen, Taryn | 12 | Leavenworth High School | 20:02.20 | 12 | |
| 15 | Elsner, Karli | 10 | Valley Center High School | 20:03.50 | 13 | |
| 16 | Dietsch, Haley | 12 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 20:06.70 | 14 | |
| 17 | Mccarter, Avery | 11 | Seaman High School | 20:08.80 | 15 | |
| 18 | Wilson, Ellie | 12 | Mill Valley High School | 20:11.80 | -- | |
| 19 | Turner, Hannah | 9 | Blue Valley Southwest | 20:11.90 | 16 | |
| 20 | Goetz, Mary | 10 | St. James Academy | 20:14.20 | 17 | |
3A/5A/6A State Meet Race Recaps: