I'll start the recap with the deepest league on both the girls' and boys' side for the day -- the East Kansas League. For the girls, #1 St. Thomas Aquinas took the win with 22 points. #3 Margaret Pigott led her team with a dominating 18:31 victory, and the Saints also took 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 11th, and 12th to take half of the medals. #5 Blue Valley North was second in the team standings with 55 points, led by freshman #12 Lily Strauss, who placed 4th to break up the Saints' front four. They also placed #20 Sophie Scott and Anna Martin at 7th and 10th. #9 Blue Valley Southwest took 3rd with 72 points, led by Piper Misse's 6th place, 20:15 finish. They also put two more in the top 15. #10 Blue Valley West took 4th with 119 points, followed by #12 Blue Valley with 132 points.
On the boys' side, #1 St. Thomas Aquinas took first with 21 points, way ahead of #4 Blue Valley Southwest (77 points) and #5 Blue Valley (81). The Saints were helped by sweeping the top four spots - #2 Michael Shanahan took a 13-second victory, running a 16:08, followed by #8 Will Cole in second, #16 Alex Gill in third, and #19 Daniel Petracek in fourth. Blue Valley Southwest was helped by three top-ten finishes; Dylan Miller was 5th, Tristan Eastham was 7th, and Beau Constant was 9th. Blue Valley had two top-15 finishes, with #3 Joey Wiederholt in 6th and Keegan Donahue in 13th. Blue Valley West took 4th in the team standings with 109 points, followed closely by #23 Blue Valley Northwest with 115 and #17 Blue Valley North with 125.
On the girls' side, the only other Thursday League meet with more than one ranked team present was the Kaw Valley League meet. #14 Mill Valley led the way over #17 Lansing, by a 28-38 score. Mill Valley doesn't have any currently ranked individuals, but they had a solid pack, with merely 26 seconds separating their #1 and #5 and each of those five were in the top eight. Ellie Wilson was the top runner, placing 3rd in 20:05. Lansing was great at #1 and #2, taking first and second with Jaci Huckabee (19:52) and Stacy Briggs (20:02) but couldn't break up the Mill Valley pack with their next three finishers going 9-12-14.
#11 Mill Valley dominated the boys' Kaw Valley race, going 1-2-3-5-10-11-12. Derek Meeks won in 16:32, and Garret Fields (16:45) and Gavin Overbeck (16:55) were the only other sub-17:00 runners.
The Frontier League Meet saw both ranked Baldwin teams in action. The #11 Girls dominated the competition, placing 1-3-4-5-6-7, scoring 19 points. #13 Addie Dick ran her first sub-19:00 of the year, running an 18:58 to win by 1:06 over Gabby Collins of DeSoto, who led her team to a second-place, 72 point performance. The #14 Boys won easily as well with 30 points, though current Honorable Mention team DeSoto challenged them and scored 51 points to place second. #10 George Letner took the win in 16:02 over #13 Dylan Brenneman, who ran a 16:16. Luis Murillo led the 2nd-place DeSoto team in 3rd with a time of 16:44.
On the boys' side, two currently ranked teams ran in the WAC Meet in Liberal. #7 Dodge City took the solid win with 27 points, by placing their five scorers in the top nine. Three honorable mention individuals placed in the top five, led by Marcus Tula of #21 Garden City, which placed second with 62 points. Tula ran a 16:41 for the victory followed by Dodge City's top runner, Marcelo Cruz, in 16:44. #14 Kerby Depenbusch, third in 16:52.
One other currently ranked team was in action on Thursday, and that is #22 Circle's girls. They dominated the AVCTL Div. 4 meet, placing all seven runners in the top 12 and scoring 25 points. Spencer Jacobson led Circle with her 20:30 win; Andale's Claire Winter was a distant second in 21:05, followed by Circle teammates Anna Keller and Allison Derry in 3rd and 4th. Also of note, Circle's boys, who are currently honorable mention, also won with 43 points, ahead of Andale's 52. Logan Horning led Circle in 3rd; Lakelin Conrad of Collegiate took the win with the only sub-17:00 time (16:57).
Other ranked girls individuals in action on Thursday:
#1 Cailie Logue -- 1st @ CNC League, 18:20 (2nd was teammate Layne Karhoff in 20:34)
#6 Cassidy Westhoff -- 1st @ SEK League, 18:01 (2nd was McKenzie Wilks of Pittsburg in 19:33); fastest time of the day
Other ranked boys individuals in action on Thursday:
#4 Riley Osen -- 1st @ AVCTL Div. 3, 16:46 (2nd was Tim Kemboi of El Dorado, 17:28)