League Recap & Looking ahead to Regionals

Abbye Hudson, wearing the iconic strips of Cheney, leads the pack at the Central Plains League (Photo by J Hobson)

Of all the league results from this past weekend, one stands out the most.

The Western Athletic Conference, or WAC for short, was held Thursday afternoon in Garden City. And yes, it was WACk. In the first race of the day, the JV girls had seven runners under 20:00. The JV boys was won with an 18:17, which is a little quick but nothing out of the ordinary for a 5A/6A league. Then the Varsity girls ran. Six runners under 17:00, and nearly the entire field under 20:00. The boys winner, Devin Chappel of Garden City, only beat the fastest girl, Addy Nicholson of Great Bend, by 0.6 seconds. Now obviously the girls course short somehow. Great Bend, Garden City, and Hays aren't 3 of the top 5 teams in the nation, and Great Bend's JV is not good enough to win 5A. Although it is quite strange for the boys to be normal and girls to be short, despite both being listed as 5K. Add in the fact that six boys from three different schools got disqualified in the varsity race, you can truly say that this was a wacky WAC.

In a meet that made a little more sense, Riley County's girls won a close Mid-East league title over Silver Lake. Wabaunsee's Payton Wurtz was the individual champ in 19:21. On the boys side, Riley County took home individual gold with Owen Meisner's 17:14, but Silver Lake went 2-3-4 in a landslide team victory.

Out on the Hi-Plains, Chesney Peterson, Kamryn Golub and their Stanton County Trojans all defended as league champs. The girls did it in dominating fashion, but the boys needed Golub's heroics in a 1-second win over Austin Ritsema to defeat Lakin by 1 point. The Broncs really could have used their former leader, Lawson Beymer, but Beymer has been running for the Buffaloes this year in Garden City.

In other Western-Kansas league meets, Scott City's boys upset Holcomb 40-43 in the Great West Conference, while Holcomb's girls returned the favor 33-45. Destiny Mitchell of Otis-Bison and Broxton Gall of Ness City, both underclassmen, were victors at the Central Prairie League.

In the Greater Wichita meet, we saw Kapaun Mt Carmel sweep, with the girls scoring 22 points behind Taylor Barringer and the boys scoring 27 behind Luke Brock. Not too far away, it was Kaleb Glazier and Maize who defeated a solid Ark City team 41-57 at the Ark Valley-Chisolm Trail Championship. Andover freshman Madelyn Wallace won the upper-division girls title at 19:09, but her team couldn't handle the power of Maize South. In the lower division, CJ and Will Meyer of Collegiate went 1-2 in the boys race, but Buhler was easily the best team in that meet. Clearwater's Hayley Trotter and Winfield's girls also impressed with their victories.

In a third Wichita-Area league, the Central Plains, Wichita Trinity sat out their varsity, and their JV girls still came in second to Cheney. The boys, though, were the impressive ones. Their JV scored 22 points to win the league title, SIXTY points ahead of the other teams. The varsity squad is the best in Kansas, let alone 3A, and they have the depth for a JV team to destroy the league and probably still get top 5 at 3A state. This program is unfathomably good right now.

Elsewhere around the state, West Franklin took care of business in a solid Flint Hills League. Tonganoxie's Eli Gilmore and the Eudora Girls both impressed at the Frontier League. Doniphan West's girls extended their Twin Valley streak, and the Buessing Dynasty at Axtell continued on the boys side.

Blue Valley Southwest knocked off Aquinas at the Eastern Kansas League, while St James packed well to win the girls' title. At the Sunflower League, Wyatt Haughton defended his championship with a 15:18, coming alarmingly close to the Rim Rock course record. Micah Blomker of Shawnee Mission North wasn't far behind, and it looks like he may be back to form just in time for the postseason. Haughton's SM East squad was team champs. Olathe West dominated with their girls, and Anjali Hocker-Singh knocked off Hannah Gibson from SM South to win in 18:02.

Looking Ahead to Regionals:

As we head into the state-sanctioned postseason, there are a few highlights to look for at the regional meets. As usual, there are a few unbalanced regions where some well-deserving teams will be forced to stay home.

6A regions are about as balanced as they can be. The Wichita region is clearly the weakest, but geographically speaking, what can you do... switch Derby and Gardner-Edgerton? The Olathe region will likely send a deserving boys and girls team home disappointed. On the boys side, Olathe West & East, and Gardner-Edgerton will battle it out for the final two slots, while Olathe East & South, and BV Northwest will fight for the final girls slot.

As it happens every year, that 5A region is stacked again. Aquinas, BV Southwest, St James, DeSoto, and Spring Hill. Boys and girls, this one's gonna leave someone out. In KSHSAA's defense, though, it's a little hard to split up teams that are all in the southern half of the same county.

4A looks about like it always does. The Baldwin regional with the Frontier League schools is loaded on the girls side, the Southeast Kansas regional needs help, and the Topeka region will be a dogfight on the boys side.

In 3A, all eyes will be on the Central region at Council Grove. This isn't as stacked as it's been in recent years (a genuine thank-you to KSHSAA for that), but there will be an incredibly exciting battle for 3rd on both the boys and girls side. The ever-unimpressive Southeast Kansas region gets a bump from the Wichita schools, Trinity and Collegiate, who could very well take the entire top-10. The girls is the same way, just substitute Cheney for Collegiate.

Pictured above: The Tallgrass Prairie course at Chase County the morning of last year's regional meet.

The toughest road lies in 2A, where the top-3 boys teams are all in the Chase County region. Berean Academy, Hutch-Trinity, and Marion (all from the Heart of America League) are all headed to the tough Tallgrass Prairie course. Oddly enough, Chase County hosted last year and was the weakest region. This year, KSHSAA sent an entirely different set of schools (that's right, 15 new ones) to the Tallgrass Prairie. While the Chase County girls snuck in last year as the #20 team in the state, the 6th-ranked boys this year are behind three immovable objects. What KSHSAA giveth, KSHSAA taketh away. In a more fun regional at Great Bend, former 1A champs Meade will try to take on 2A power Hoxie.

1A is actually well-balanced, but a battle for the final boys spot in the West will be exciting. As last year proved, though, 1A can be more chaotic at regionals than any other division.