COLONY — Kaitlyn Cummings had a hunch a couple of years ago her Crest High cross country team would be pretty good.
“They were doing really well when they were in eighth grade,” Cummings said.
By the fall of 2022 it became clear just how special the girls were when as freshmen, Lady Lancers Josie Walter, Peyton Schmidt and Aubrey Allen took the cross country world by storm.
They ran roughshod through the Three Rivers League, left most of their regional competitors in the dust, and wrapped up a wildly successful season with a third-place team finish at the Class 1A State Meet in Wamego.
Turns out the next year would be even better.
With the speedy sophomores at the team’s core, Walter, Schmidt and the Allen sisters — Aubrey’s older sister Kaylee was the lone senior — capped their historic 2023 campaign with a second-place finish at state.
Walter, who took fifth individually, and Schmidt, who took 10th, also earned all-state designation.
The achievement also brought a special honor to Crest head coach Katilyn Cummings, who was voted on by the other cross country coaches as the Class 1A Girls coach of the year for 2023.
“It really helps to have girls as talented and hard-working as these,” she said.
CUMMINGS, who just finished her fifth year at the helm at CHS, has been blessed with some talented runners since she helped resume the once-dormant cross country program in Colony in 2019.
The Billings sisters, Elka and Ursula, had already made a name for themselves as runners in Iola, and were transferring to Crest.
Former CHS athletic director Martin Bambick knew of Cummings’ history as a runner — she was a two-time state qualifier more than a decade ago when she attended Chanute High School.
“I wasn’t a crazy good athlete or anything,” she recalled. “I knew I wasn’t that good at other sports, but I enjoyed running.”
Cummings, whose other claim to fame is being a part of Chanute High’s school record 4-by-800-meter relay track team, had a yearning to coach at some point.
She admitted to being a bit gun shy about pursuing a coaching gig at a larger school, and figured a fledgling Crest program would fit.
