Just a
little under one year after fading badly in the latter stages of a race she
seemingly had won, Stanton County's Chesney Peterson has her redemption.
The
sophomore took charge of the class 2A girls state cross country championship on
Saturday and held off a gutsy performance from Kansas City Christian senior Alysia Wagner. Peterson won in 18:17.1 - the fastest time by any Kansas girl on state
championship weekend - while Wagner clocked 18:31.7 (the third best time among
Kansas girls Saturday).
Ellinwood
senior Erin Hammeke, the defending state champion in class 2A, was on her game
again, finishing third in 18:58.4 - the second-fastest time she's run in her
high school career.
Peterson
bolted to a big lead last year in the state championship race, but suffered
health issues during the race and ended up in 41st place. She returned with
fire in her eyes this season, racking up her ninth victory in nine races.
Spotted a
big lead again this year, Peterson never let up, hammering away at the Sand
Plum Nature Trail course, located near Victoria.
It was part
of a banner day for Stanton County, as the squad successfully defended the
class 2A girls team title. Stanton County scored 48, while upstart Remington
scored 83 for second. Oakley was third at 108.
Also for Stanton
County, sophomore Suzanne Farnham placed seventh (20:02.6), senior Peyton
Peterson was 12th (20:35.7), freshman Madison Seyb was 24th (21:21.2) and
senior Jania Don Juan placed 31st (21:48.3).
Remington's
Lucy Brown, a junior, was her team's only state medalist, placing 11th in
20:35.4. But the squad put its 2-5 runners within a minute of each other to key
its run to second place.
Medalists
Jaelle Johnson (13th, 20:39.4) and Citori Bosserman (19th, 21:04.4) - both
sophomores - were key to Oakley's third place finish.
Emily Diercks of Hoxie (19:33.8) and Josie Ware of West Elk (19:38.6) rounded out the girls top five finishers.
Stanton
County's boys couldn't quite repeat as state champs, but they came pretty
close. Newcomer Berean Academy - last year's state champion in class 1A - moved
up a division and snagged the top spot from Stanton County.
Berean
Academy scored 54 points, while Stanton County had 62 and McLouth placed third
with 84.
The state
title was essentially decided by each squad's top three runners. Through three
finishers, Berean had scored 14 compared to 20 for Stanton County and 36 for
McLouth. Those differences didn't change much for the fourth and fifth runners.
Berean
Academy had three medalists in sophomore Andrew Harder (fifth, 16:47.5), senior
Gavin Tucker (tenth, 17:04.0) and junior Eli Nord (13th, 17:06.4). Stanton
County was led by sophomore Kamryn Golub (third, 16:24.6) and junior Spencer Schmidt (12th, 17:04.9).
The
individual title went to Trego Community senior Wyndom Giefer, who clocked
16:09.2 for his first-ever state title. He fought off a gallant run by Hoxie
senior Gabriel Friess, who finished in 16:17.3.
Trevor Pentlin, a senior from Jefferson County North and the state runner-up a year
ago, placed fourth on Saturday in 16:42.8. It's the best time of his high school
career, and more than two minutes faster than he ran to win last week's
regional meet at Turner.
