Logue 14:13 @ Pleasanton! Joe Gorthy runs 15:35, St. Thomas Aquinas girls roll @ Cat Classic

10/7 – EUREKA – The girls’ race was dominated by Douglass and Olpe, as they both put four runners in the top ten.  Douglass’ Klair Gibson came out on top with a time of 16:07, winning easily over teammate Suzie Wright, who ran a 16:34.  Olpe was led by Miranda Scheller’s 17:22 third-place finish and Brittany White-Dold’s 17:43 fifth-place finish.  Marion’s McKenzee Remmers broke up the Douglass/Olpe group, finishing fourth right behind Scheller in 17:23.  The only other non-Douglass/Olpe runner in the top ten was Lebo’s Hannah Small, who finished tenth.  Douglass’ girls won the team battle, by three points – 39 to Olpe’s 42, while Burlington finished a distant third with 68 points.

 

Kyler True of Olpe was the winner of the boys’ race with a time of 17:00, dominating the race over his teammate Derek Nuessen, who finished second in 17:52.  The next two finishers were John Brunner of Remington, running an 18:02, and Yates Center’s Brett Holloway in 18:08.  Olpe was the top team with 47 points, 21 ahead of runner-up Burlington.

 

10/7 – HOXIE INVITATIONAL/NWKL LEAGUE MEET – Winter Polivka of Decatur Community was back running this week, leading her team to both the individual and team Northwest Kansas League victory.  She edged Wheatland’s Taylor Tustin, a non-NWKL runner, by 5 seconds, running a 16:32 for the overall win.  The next 10 runners were all NWKL runners, and Decatur Community’s Jakobi Blau led the charge with a 17:03, followed by Wallace County’s Robyn Selzer.  Caitie Shields (Decatur Community) and Payden Shapland (Dighton) rounded out the top 5 for the NWKL meet.  Scoring 4 runners, Oberlin took the NWKL with 12 points, well ahead of Greeley County’s 31, who was led by Coraima Yanez in 8th overall (7th NWKL, 17:52). 

 

The overall boys’ champion was Brewster’s Layton Werth, who finished a minute and 50 seconds ahead of second place.  However, Brewster is not a NWKL member, and the league champion was Nicholas Wente of Quinter, who just barely outran Greeley County’s Sergio Trejo by one second – 19:11 to 19:12.  Gannon Henningson of Decatur Community finished fourth overall and third NWKL with a 19:32.  He led his team to the NWKL victory with a four-man score of 20.

 

The Hoxie Invitational team scores were tallied by using both the boys’ and girls’ overall places.  The five lowest scores on both sides were used for the score.  Using this formula, Oberlin-Decatur Community was the meet champion with 21 points, followed by Brewster with 39.

 

10/9 – CIRCLE INVITATIONAL – For the girls, Andover’s Carly Flake won yet again, running a 15:39.  Lauren Nutting of Andover Central took second in 15:53 as the only other runner under 16:00.  A duo from the Southeast Kansas League team of Chanute went 3-4, with Madison Dispensa and Talia Ramsey running 16:06 and 16:12.  Jadyn Eddy led her Valley Center team with a 5th place 16:16 finish, followed immediately Belle Plaine’s Devyn Smith in 16:17.  Valley Center put their other four scorers in the top-12 to take the team title handily with 42 points.  Trinity Academy, running without their No. 1 runner, took second with 71.  Freshman Delany Bird led them today, running a 16:24 to finish tenth.  A top 3A team, Berean Academy, finished third with 106 points, led by the 16-17 finish of Tiffany Wiebe and Allison Topham.

 

The boys’ race was close at the finish between two underclassmen.  It was Andover’s Alex Moen who held off Wichita Collegiate’s Lakelin Conrad by 0.8 seconds with a time of 16:58.5.  Tyler Balsters of Belle Plaine took third in 17:22, while Trinity Academy teammates John Unruh and Grant Alexander went 4-5 in 17:32 and 17:36.  Jonam Gibbs was sixth for the home team of Circle in 17:38.  The team race was also close between Andover and Trinity Academy.  They both had their runners spread out in the top 27 places, but Andover had the better depth in the middle, and took the title with 72 points, four ahead of Trinity.  Trinity, however, upset a top 4A team in Mulvane, who finished with 100 points to edge out Circle (106).  Liam Trooien-Smith led Mulvane with a seventh place finish (17:40).

 

10/9 – CHENEY INVITATIONAL – Andale’s Clara Lane ran well by herself to win the girls’ race with a time of 15:51.  That was a minute and 26 seconds ahead of second place.  Sarah Patteson of Udall was that runner in 17:17, followed by Tina Schrage of Independent in 17:21 and Cassie Panek of Pretty Prairie in 17:25.  Andale took the team title handily with 30 points after putting two more runners in the top 9.  South Central’s team took second with 54 points.

 

Kiowa County’s Frank Cuevas pulled away from the field to win with a 16:50, the only sub-17:00 time for the boys.  Josh Dye of Andale was second in 17:13, while Reno Farris ran well for Cheney on his home course, running a 17:21.  Andale, who put their other five scorers in the top ten led by the 4-6 finish of Kurt Winter and David Spencer, won the team title easily with 28 points.  Chaparral was second with 60 points, led by Brandon Clark in 8th (18:11).

 

10/9 – MILL VALLEY CAT CLASSIC – As one of the bigger meets for the day, this meet saw some good results for both the girls and boys.  For the girls, Lauren Harrell of Maranatha Academy came away with an impressive win and broke the 15:00 barrier for the first time, running a 14:58.  St. Thomas Aquinas had a decent showing without one of their top runners, placing their five scorers in the top 13.  Maggie Sieben and Emily Downey led the charge, finishing 2-3 in 15:07 and 15:13.  A trio of runners came in before the next two Aquinas girls:  Judi Jones of St. James Academy in 15:14, Natalie Eppler of Paola in 15:15, and Cameron Gueldner of Olathe Northwest in 15:16.  St. Thomas Aquinas ended up with 33 points for the team win, while St. James Academy had an impressive showing, scoring 79 points for second place.  They had two other runners behind Jones in the top ten – a 9-10 finish by Gabrielle Boucher (15:31) and Carlie Yunger (15:42).  Amber Akin of Mill Valley, who finished right behind Boucher in 11th place (15:45), led her team to finish third with 148 points, beating out Shawnee Mission North with 161, Blue Valley with 168, and Maranatha Academy with 173.

 

In the boys’ race, Joe Gorthy of Blue Valley had an impressive breakout performance, winning with a quick time of 15:35 (No. 2 time in Kansas this year) and showing himself to be a big contender for the 6A individual title.  Evan Peterson, coming across the state line from Pembroke Hill, beat out the rest of the field for second with a time of 16:11.  Blue Valley’s team also had a great performance behind Gorthy, as they went 3-4-6 with Jake Mikuls (16:21), Joey Weiderholt (16:24), and Blake Berger (16:29).  Scoring only 33 points today, they will be a 6A team title contender as well in three weeks if their No. 5 runner, 19th today in 17:11, can close the gap a little bit.  Mill Valley, a top 5A school, finished second with 71 points.  The 5-7 performances by Derek Meeks (16:28) and Kurt Loevenstein (16:31), and the 10th place finish by Garret Fields (16:49) led their team.  Other notable performances were:  Luis Murillo of DeSoto, eighth in 16:37, Aaron Taylor of Olathe Northwest, 9th in 16:40.  Further team standings saw Olathe South third with 99 points, Shawnee Mission North fourth with 133, and Maranatha Academy fifth with 164.

 

10/9 – PHILLIPSBURG INVITATIONAL – Junior Andrea Browne of Colby took the individual title somewhat easily with her 15:49 finish, while Norton Community went 2-3 with Sierra Griffith’s 16:13 and Kara Frack’s 16:53.  Savanna Cox of Beloit took fourth in 17:01 while Norton’s Nicole Thrailkill rounded out the top five with her 17:03 finish.  Norton Community’s top three proved to be too strong for Thomas More Prep’s pack, which had a 36 second spread.  Juniors Alicia Lechmann and Rachel Hamel led that group with 17:09 and 17:11 finishes, but Norton Community came out with fewer points, 31-39.  Oakley, led by Kaelyn Vaneaton in ninth place (17:27), took third with 94 points over Colby’s 99.  Also in the top ten was Trego Community’s freshman Aleah Howard, eighth with a time of 17:16.

 

The boys’ race was closer up front than for the girls, and it was Thomas More Prep’s Andrew Hess who took home the title with a time of 17:31.  Norton Community freshman was on his heels with his 17:34 second-place finish, while Phillipsburg senior Wyatt Ratzlaff was third in 17:36.  Thomas More Prep put five more runners in the top 17 and took the team title easily with 38 points.  Only 17 points separated the next four team finishers, and Hill City, which had Tanner Colburn fifth in 17:55 and Mike Poe eighth in 18:09, took runner-up with 88 points.  Beloit and Oakley had strong packs in the middle and scored 95 and 99 points, respectively, while Colby took fifth with 105 points, led by Aaron Faber’s fourth place finish (17:43).

 

10/9 – PLEASANTON – The biggest story, at least on the individual side, is here at this small meet, as Girard sophomore Cailie Logue ran another state-leading time.  Her time of 14:13 beat the course record by 33 seconds and her previous state-leading time by 25 seconds.  However, the runner-up was Kaylee Bogina of Northeast-Arma, one of the two 3A individual favorites, who also had an impressive showing, beating the course record by 2 seconds by running a 14:44.  Also way ahead of the rest of the field was 1A State favorite Jenny of O’Bryan, running a solid 15:07 for third place.  So, three probable future State champions in three weeks, here in one meet!  Rounding out the top five were the only other sub-17:00 times of the day – Sarah O’Bryan of St. Paul (16:40) and Layne Karhoff of Girard (16:48).  Girard, one of only three complete teams, took the team title easily with 17 points.

 

The boys race featured a trio of runners just under 17:00 in an exciting finish.  Brett Holloway of Yates Center won with a time of 16:58.25, outsprinting Girard’s Aaron Pyle (16:59.06) and Northeast-Arma’s Michael Toms (16:59.76).  Girard took the team title easily with 26 points, putting the rest of their scorers behind Pyle in the top 11.  The 5-6-8 finish by Jon Zimmerman (17:18), Ryan Hughes (17:21), and Dalton Lindbloom (17:35) was important for that low team score.  Yates Center, who also had Drake Busteed fourth in 17:12, took second with 58 points.  Also with a sub-17:30 time in the top 10 was Dietrich Smith of Cherokee-Southeast, 7th in 17:24.

 

10/9 – STERLING – This smaller-school meet saw a good showdown on the girls’ side between Hillsboro’s Emily Sechrist and Pratt’s Halle Helfrich.  Sechrist ended up ahead with what would have been the state’s new leading 4k time if not for Logue’s performance at Pleasanton, running a 14:36, while Helfrich also ran an impressive time of 14:44.  Sechrist was beat by fellow 3A runner Bogina at Rim Rock, but showed today that she will be hard to beat in three weeks at the 3A state meet.  Celia Biel of Hutchinson-Trinity was over a minute behind Helfrich in third, with a time of 15:46, while Joanna Strecker led a 4-5 Ellinwood finish with teammate Abbie Reichuber, running times of 15:52 and 16:03.  Delainee Gordon of Larned was sixth in 16:18, while a top 1A runner in Lisa Penner of Macksville was seventh in 16:23.  The team title was won comfortably by Ellinwood, which had a 10-11-12 finish behind the front duo, with 26 points.  Haven, led by Brianne Jones in 9th (16:36), finished second with 63 points, while Lyons, led by Samantha Trejo’s 8th place 16:28 finish, was third with 78.

 

Hennry Penner ran a 16:25 to run away with the boys individual victory.  Morgan Feemster of Ellinwood ran a season best, running 16:43 to finish second, while the Pratt duo of Joseph Loomis and Dylan Pelland finished 3-4 with times of 16:57 and 17:03.  Danyon Green of Larned also ran well, finishing fifth in 17:15, while South Gray’s Luke Skinner finished sixth in 17:37 as the last runner under 18:00.  Pratt, which also had Brody Cronister 10th in 18:20, took home the team title with 50 points.  Hutchinson-Trinity was not far behind with 59 points, led by the 8-9 finish of Eric Bentley (18:02) and Thomas Fink (18:11).  Pratt-Skyline edged St. John-Hudson by one point for 3rd, tallying 82 points.