Kansas' cross country runners and teams went through their
final dress rehearsal before the post-season begins in earnest next week, and
many passed the last test with flying colors.
Pierce Flanders and Jaybe Shufelberger of Washburn Rural, in
fact, came away from Week 6 with a couple of titles to their credit. They
out-dueled their city counterparts to become Topeka City Champions Saturday at
Felker Park.
Flanders, sixth in the class 6A state meet a year ago, is
following a pattern eerily similar to last year when he hovered around the
17:00 mark for most of the season before coming on strong late. Saturday, he
posted a season-best 16:17 to beat out Seaman's Dawson Podlena (16:21) for the
title.
Shufelberger won in 19:58, out-running Topeka's Abby Wagemaker (20:17) to the finish.
Washburn Rural swept the team titles. The boys scored 37 to
edge Seaman (41), while the Lady Blues scored 28 to easily out-pace runner-up
Shawnee Heights (56).
Halstead's Steven Cli...