In a year that has been characterized by somewhat poor weather, we stumbled upon a beautiful day for State XC at the Wamego Country Club on Saturday. 1A returned to the Red Raiders' home course after a 2-year hiatus at Victoria's Sand Plum course.
Leading off the morning was the 1A Girls race, and it was an exciting one. Emma Weiner of Golden Plains found her way to the front fairly early, and opened a 30-second gap over the 3.1 mile race. Her championship-winning time was 19:37. Hailey Walden, a freshman from the Classical School of Wichita was the runner-up by a fair margin. She clocked 20:07 to defeat Colony-Crest's Josie Walter (20:24). Olpe's Lillian Skalsky was the next runner through the line at 20:38. Weiner and Walden were regional champions a week ago, but the third champ, Osborne's Mya Schweitzer, was listed as DNS/DNF on the results sheet, meaning she either didn't start or didn't finish the race. Either way, that was a big hit for the Osborne team, as they were looking for a high team placing as well.
After the leaders came through, the team score was the next to be decided. Our primary contenders going into the meet were from the Western part of the state. Quinter, the defending champs and favorites all season long, were all sorts of off the mark. With their scoring runners nearly a minute off their usual times, the Bulldogs just didn't have their day, and fell all the way off the podium. As mentioned last week, the margin for error was thin. South Gray was just two points behind Quinter at their regional meet, and were able to steal the show this time. Kylie Stapleton and Gwyn Jantz took 5th and 6th overall to start off the scoring, and Jacee Deges also claimed a medal at 15th. It was a huge win for the girls from the small town of Montezuma. Following them up was the Blue Crew from Ness City. Their top scorer, Emma Petersilie, was 20th overall in 22:04, but her teammates filed through quickly throughout the next minute or so to keep the team points low, scoring 58 to South Gray's 40. Colony-Crest, led by Walter in 3rd overall, was the bronze medal team, scoring 74.
A few races later, the boys were up. Brenden Ellis of Ingalls was the slight favorite heading into the race. Pretty soon, though, he became the heavy favorite. The Senior broke away and never looked back, erupting to a 42-second victory in 16:50. His closest competitor was Ness City freshman Broxton Gall, who was third at their regional a week ago. Gall crossed in 17:32. Not far behind him was Kiowa County's Samuel Martinez in 17:38. Martinez was 9th at regionals last week, making a big leap here at state to get 3rd overall. In case you ever wondered why they take at least the top-10 individuals, this is why. Evan Pearce, another Western-Kansas runner, was 4th in 17:44, claiming his medal for Wallace County. Representing the Eastern half of the state was Lebo's Caleb Durst, crossing in 17:47, just 0.07 seconds ahead of Beloit-St John's Jonas Letourneau.
Letourneau's Beloit-St John team and Gall's Ness City squad were both contenders for the team title, so their low placings started things off well for their teams. However, it was Quinter who packed 4 scoring runners in medal position to win the title. Hans Deaton was 9th, followed by Elliot Churchwell in 15th, Micah Simon in 17th, and Matthew Elder in 19th. Beloit-St John and Ness City both had their #2 runners just outside of medal position, but Beloit-St John had the better 3 and 4, giving them the runner-up trophy while Ness City settled for 3rd.
The team title probably felt good for the Quinter team, especially after a tough outing on the girls side. Last year, the Bulldog boys came in with title hopes, only to be swept away by a dominant Meade team. This year, not so much, as they score 30 to Beloit-St John's 45 and Ness City's 57.