The second week of Kansas cross country was another wet one, with several meets in the northeastern part of the state getting cancelled including Saturday's headliner at the Wamego country club. Week two did not go by quietly, however. Hesston's Swather Special proved to be an exciting meet in Classes 1A-3A. The meet is scored differently than most, with points being scored against students in the same year of school. On the boys side, Meade's Ethan Thompson led the way with a time of 16:19, finishing a minute ahead of the field. Halstead, the defending 3A champs, won the meet with 22 points, just 3 points ahead of rising superpower Southeast of Saline. The Dragons had an average time of 18:18, while Southeast of Saline posted an 18:02. More impressively, the Trojans scored that with only freshmen and sophomores, showing that they may be the 3A team of the future. For the girls, there were a host of impressive times, but the winner was Beloit's Hannah Burks at 19:56. Berean Academy was the top team overall, led by senior Erin Topham who finished second overall and first in the senior division in 20:08.
Elsewhere, at the
Burlington invitational, Yates Center
standout Hadley Splechter held off a strong showing from Bishop Seabury's Henry Nelson. Splechter finished in 16:56 while Nelson crossed in 17:09. The
Burlington Wildcats would go on to easily win the meet with an average time of
19:30. The girls race was all West Franklin. The Falcons, led by Senior Molly Rossman, took the top 4 spots, but did not post a team score due to not having
a 5th runner in the race. As a result, Burlington took the team title. Keep an
eye out for West Franklin in the future, though. They also had runners at the
Lyndon invitational, so a full team should be in the cards as early as this
week.
For the Lyndon Invite
at Melvern Lake, Central Heights was the team to beat and nobody could do it.
The boys stacked 6 of the top 10 to dominate the field, and the girls pulled
off a 4-point win over Jefferson County North. The individual winners were Alex Cannady and Lily Meyer, both of Central Heights. The Vikings posted average
times of 20:23 and 28:06, but expect those to drop, as Lyndon's course is known
for having slower times.
Helen Giefer and Wyndom Giefer of Trego Community won their respective races at the Tribune-Greely
County meet, both were also winners in week one. Helen posted the top time of
the lower classes in week two with a 19:43. Wallace County won the boys
division, and Scott City was the top team for the girls.
To close out the week,
we turn to the Girard Invitational, where Riverton senior JP Rutledge ran his
first race on the grass. He started off in style, winning the meet in an
explosive 15:52. Galena's Matthew Oglesby finished second in 16:31. Rutledge
competed under the red and white of Baxter Springs, thanks to an interschool
agreement, but will run for Riverton in the postseason.
Reminder to coaches and meet directors, send meet results (we prefer HTML
format) to jmadison@milesplit.com. We're still waiting for full results from
Stockton and South Gray.