To be honest, when I picked the KC Meet of the Week, I wasn't sure if Bonner Springs would be the best meet of the weekend. In fact, I came very close to choosing Baldwin instead. Some of you may have noticed that (if you know, you know). In hindsight, after seeing the storylines play out, I think I guessed correctly on this one.
Leading off with some middle school highlights, it was Kansas City East Christian's Joey DeRouchie that dusted the 7th grade boys field. He clocked in over a minute faster than everyone else in his race, and even 30 seconds ahead of the 8th grade winner, Grayson Masterson of Eudora.
On the girls side, it was another 7th grader leading all two-milers, this time it was Eudora's Brooklyn Dunnaway. She finished 52 seconds ahead of the other 7th graders and 3 seconds ahead of the 8th grade leaders.
Those 8th grade leaders included her teammate, Emma Saber, who edged out Christ Preparatory's Caroline Brethour by 0.2 seconds.
In the non-varsity high school races, Blue Valley Northwest was the best team on the boys side (both JV and C) and Christ Preparatory won in the girls races.
In our preview article, it was mentioned that Christ Prep's girls could flirt with a perfect score in this one.
They did not disappoint.
The one-sided affair saw Elizabeth Kurtz lead the way, and just 27 seconds later, all five Christ Prep scorers had finished. Isabelle Wood, the 5th place finisher, was 19 seconds ahead of Ella Aquino of Bishop Miege.
What does this mean for the Christ Prep girls? Well, it means they're extremely good. They just won the 4A division at Wamego, and would have perfect-scored their Week 1 meet if it weren't for Prairie View superstar Bree Allen.
Next up is the Crimson race at Rim Rock and then the KC XC Classic. It's time to see how high these girls can go.
The boys team race was the polar opposite. It was as close as close can get. Not only that, but it produced a team result that you don't see every day.
This one was between Christ Prep and Blue Valley Northwest. Beforehand, these two appeared fairly evenly matched. We mentioned Christ Prep's pack time would give them an advantage, and they did, in fact, pack their 1-5 together 22 seconds better than BV Northwest. Usually that comes into play if the team averages are close.
Oh and it just so happens that their team averages were exactly the same, covering the WyCo park course in an average of 17:11.
So, advantage to Christ Prep, right?
Well, in most cases, yes. That's just a rule of thumb, though. As we all know, sports outcomes don't always follow the statistics when the sample size is 1.
Blue Valley Northwest, against the odds, took the 1-point victory 47-48. It's hard to pick an MVP since it seemed like these two had everyone either 1 spot ahead or behind the other team. If I had to make a pick, though, it would be #2 runner Jey Durham. The Huskies needed someone to step up, and Saturday was Jey's day. The junior stuck close enough to his teammate Jacob D'Souza to stay ahead of Christ Prep's top runner, creating a two-point swing that proved to be the difference.
Individually, it was Blue Valley's Noah Summers that pulled away from Leavenworth's Jonathan Purvis for a 34-second victory.