Northern Heights freshman Ellei McCrory has quickly emerged as one of Kansas' best athletes
(Photo by Steve Bradley, KS XCT&F)
Class 1A was the final division to wrap up this year's XC season in Kansas, as the girls were the final race at Wamego on Saturday. The 2023 championship was a memorable one in 1A, with a crowded boys race individually, and the first state title for an elite freshman on the girls' side. In the team standings, the pre-race favorites executed well and claimed their place atop the podium.
The boys' race started in the sunshine, but eventually gave way to cloudier conditions for the rest of the day. Ness City's Broxton Gall was out the gate ready to roll, leading from the gun. Last year's runner-up was overtaken by Wallace County's Evan Pearce about half a mile in, leading the front pack of six. Before the mile-mark, on the switchback hills, Blake Yoder of Central Christian made a move on the downhill to take the lead, while Lebo's Caleb Durst and Olpe's Kaleb Arnold made efforts to give chase. In the middle mile, Pearce and Arnold would begin to fade, opening the door for Jude Nelson of Skyline to move up. Meanwhile, Caleb Durst began to close the gap on 1st place. Broxton Gall stayed in the neighborhood as well. Shortly after the 2-mile mark, Durst took over the lead. Yoder, using the downhills to his advantage, was within 10 steps the next several minutes, until the final downhill towards the finish, where he made his move to retake the lead. Neck & neck in the final 50 meters, Durst had just enough left in the tank to outlast Yoder, giving the junior his first state title.
Broxton Gall, who was never entirely out of it, finished 14 seconds back in third. Skyline took the next two spots, with Ethan Robinson surging in the second half of the race to take 4th, and Jude Nelson in 5th. Kaleb Arnold, the Olpe junior, was right on their heels in 6th.
Of the leaders, only Gall, Robinson, & Jude were on scoring teams. Skyline looked good with 2 up front, while Kiowa County also had 2 in the top 15. It was Quinter, though, that would hoist the trophy. Elliot Churchwell came through in 11th, and just 18 seconds later the Bulldogs had finished scoring at 45. Gall's Ness City squad finished runner-up, while Beloit-St. John had a similar pack mentality to get 3rd over a quality Skyline team. Just 9 points separated 2nd and 4th, with Ness City at 70, Beloit-St. John at 74, and Skyline at 79.
One fun story from the boys' race was South Gray senior Dominic Martin. He had qualified out of the tough Western region, taking the final spot as an additional individual qualifier in 20th place. No other 20th place regional finisher from any class qualified individually. He was quite literally the last man in. But, boy, did he make the most of it. Martin hadn't set a PR since his first high school 5K, but in his last chance, he did just that. Charging down the homestretch and clocking 18:37 on the brutal Wamego course, he beat his old time by 17 seconds, going out in style. If you tune to 1:33:28 on the 1A/2A/4A State Replay, you'll see how important this final race was to him.
Final Results | 1A/2A/4A State Replay
Later on, as the girls got set to go, the final storyline to wrap up was freshman sensation Ellei McCrory going up against 2-time state XC champion Emma Weiner. McCrory took the race out hot, and never let up. It was a wire-to-wire win for the freshman, but the competition was certainly harder to shake off than any of her previous meets this year. Weiner and Elyria Christian's Laney Reiff had set a good pace behind the leader.
McCrory kept inching away, however, and there wasn't anything the chasers could do to stop it. Reiff gained a few-step lead on Weiner into the final mile, while Colony-Crest's Josie Walter and Attica's Cady Hemphill started to reel them in. Hemphill would eventually succeed, climbing all the way to 2nd place with one of the strongest final-half-mile performances in recent memory. Reiff settled for 3rd, while Weiner came through in 4th, and Walter rounded out the top-5.
The story on the team side would be who's 3rd and 4th runners stepped up. All three regional champions (Colony-Crest, South Gray, & Northern Heights) had runners near the front, with South Gray and Elyria Christian matching each other through 2 runners. South Gray, however, brought it home with Gwyn Jantz placing 9th and Jenna Simmons 19th to round out the scoring for the Rebels. They were crowned 1A Champions with just 27 points, while Colony-Crest took runner-up with 72. Elyria Christian edged out South Haven for the final podium spot, with Laney Reiff being the difference-maker. She finished 9 spots ahead of South Haven's top runner to gain enough separation in the team points.