CARL OWCZARZAK – On the girls’ side, the two fastest times of the day were from underclassmen, with the fastest going to sophomore Amber Reed of Shawnee Mission West, who ran a 16:10. The winner of the freshmen girls’ race, Jaci Huckabee of Lansing, had the next best time of 16:19, and the runner-up, Mia Wilhoit of Shawnee Mission West, ran a 16:23 for the 3rd fastest time of the day. The other winners were Taryn Schoen of Leavenworth in the girls’ race, running a 16:30, and Aubrey Cravy of Kansas City East Christian Academy, who posted a 17:24.
Greg Flores of Leavenworth had the fastest time on the boys’ side, running a 16:36 to win the junior race by 15 seconds over his teammate, Tyler Hyde. They were two of three runners under 17:00 for the day, with the other being Victor Gonzalez of Blue Valley North, who won the senior race. The sophomore winner was Tejas Mahabaleshwarker of Blue Valley Northwest, running a 17:18, while Connor Roberts of Blue Valley Southwest ran a 17:16 to win the freshmen race narrowly over Kansas City East Christian Academy’s Kallen Webster, who ran a 17:18.
HASKELL – Lawrence Free State swept both the individual and team titles in an impressive showing in their hometown. On the girls’ side, Emily Venters ran her first 4k of the season and ran the #2 time with her 14:35, winning by 23 seconds over Olathe East junior Kayla Davis. The 3-4 finish of Claire Sanner and Kiran Cordes, and the 7th place finish of Liv Lyche propelled their team to the title with 27 points. Olathe East, despite packing six runners (including Davis) in the top 11, was second with 35 points. Shawnee Mission East, led by junior Maddie Wilson in 5th (15:27), was a distant 3rd with 69 points, and Manhattan, who didn’t bring their top team, was 4th with 107.
Ryan Liston, a senior, didn’t have as much ease as his teammate Venters, but he still won with a time of 16:33, five seconds ahead of sophomore John Arnspiger of Shawnee Mission East. Five seconds later, Olathe East had a 3-4 finish from Nicholas Skinner and Ben Kahnke, both running 16:43. The team race was somewhat close, but Lawrence Free State, powered by the 5-6-7 finish from Tanner Hockenbury, Thomas Becker, and Ethan Donley, had the low score of 33 points. The race for second was very close, but Olathe East, putting three more runners in the top 13 behind the front duo, edged out SM East 42-45. Manhattan (JV) rounded out the team scores with 110 points.