RICHMOND — Abigail Taylor seems to be settling into her first year of high school cross country competition. The Iola High freshman finished in the top five again Thursday at Central Heights High Invitational cross country meet.
Taylor earned the third-place medal, running the girls’ varsity 4K race in 17 minutes, 11 seconds. Yates Center High’s Emily Baker, also running cross country for the first time, finished fifth in 17:24.
“Emily ran fantastic. We had talked about a goal of a top 10 finish and during the race she just kept moving up from about 14th,” said Kevin Barnes, Yates Center coach.
“She was 10th, then got five more places in the last mile.”
Marmaton Valley High’s Ashtynn Louk ran 25th in the varsity girls’ race in 19:09. Iola’s Shannon Vogel placed 40th in 21:07.
Iola High head coach Marvin Smith withheld some runners from the varsity boys’ race for various reasons. The Mustangs did not run full force at Central Heights mainly because Iola competed in last Saturday’s Rim Rock Classic in Lawrence.
Jeremy Spears, who ran at Rim Rock but dropped out of the race because of an injury, came back with a strong race Thursday. Spears ran third in the 5K most of the race, then moved to second with about 200 meters left “but got caught at the tape.”
Spears finished third in 17:50 to lead the Mustangs to fifth as a team. Spring Hill won the team title with 59 points and Iola scored 101. Yates Center was sixth with 109 points and Humboldt finished eighth with 203 points.
Marmaton Valley High’s Chance Stevenson captured the 10th-place medal in 18:35. Yates Center’s Ceaton Cooper and Drake Busteed finished 12th and 13th, respectively, in 18:41 and 18:42.
Humboldt High’s Nick Keazer crossed the line in a personal-best 18:46.5. for 15th. Brett Holloway, Yates Center, claimed the 18th-place medal in 19:07.
For the Mustangs, Blaine Klubek placed 23rd in 19:26 with Zach St. Clair in 30th at 19:58. Bryan Mueller and Travis Hermstein was 45th and 46th, respectively, both at 20:41. Levi Baker took 57th in 21:58 and Jordan Strickler placed 61st in 22:17.
Yates Center had Tyler Keenan place 37th in 20:15 and Hayden Splechter 63rd at 22:23.
Humboldt’s Rayden Goltry was 60th in 22:03 followed by Byrce Isaac 66th in 23:20, Layne Gonzalez 67th at 23:33 and Jud Hawley 68th at 24:04. All were personal best times for the Humboldt runners, a recurring theme for the Cubs and Lady Cubs.
“I did not make a mistake with all the personal-best times. This was a relatively flat course with just one steep hill so that contributed to the fast times,” said Eric Carlson, Humboldt coach.
“We have had a couple of good, hard weeks of practice where we got quality runs and the kids are starting to believe in themselves.”
HUMBOLDT’S Ethan Bartlett and Tanner Orth went 1-2 in the boys’ junior varsity 5K race. Bartlett won in 19:44.7 and Orth was second in 19:47.4.
Placing third was Iola’s Jacob Cooper in 19:53. Tyler Holloway took the final medal of the race in 10th at 20:34.
“Jacob had the third best time of the day for us. If I had been smart enough to run him with the varsity, the varsity would have scored 89 points for third place,” said Marvin Smith, Iola head coach.
The Mustang freshmen ran in the junior varsity race and it was the first time for them going the 5K distance.
Others placing for the Iola junior varsity boys were: 18. Colby Works, 21:23; 21. Jonathan Tidd, 21:30; 23. Jason Tidd, 22:01; 40. Yohon Sinclair, 23:58; 41. Sagar Patel, 24:01; 43. Kaleb Beckham, 24:12; 48. Ankit Gandhi, 25:13; 50. Drew Smith, 25:23; 54. Tyler Heinrich, 26:10; 57. Garrett Prall, 26:31.
Humboldt’s Caleb D’Armond was seventh in 20:28, Andrew Keazer was eighth in 20:32 and Ronny Jarred placed ninth in 20:33. Others placing in the junior varsity race were: 11. Dillon Aikins, 20:47; 15. Zach Vanatta, 21:16; 56. Ryan Huse, 27:05; 61. Jimmy Mangold, 28:44; 62. Dawson Mauk, 29:33. All had personal-best times.
Marmaton Valley’s Marc Waggoner placed 47th in 24:56. Jake Wize took 55th in 26:39. Yates Center’s Dustin Dyer placed 60th in 27:45.
Humboldt’s Christian Sallee and Kolbyn Allen were ninth and 13th, medal winners, in the girls’ junior varsity race. Sallee ran the 4K in 21:00 and Allen finished in 21:58, both personal bests.
Also for Humboldt girls: Brook Boatwright was 22nd in 23:39, Kelsey Cramer was 23rd in 24:39 and Kristin McClanahan placed 27th in 25:14.
Iola’s Klair Vogel placed 23rd in 24:39 and Courtney Smith took 30th in 26:17.
Central Heights had races for middle school runners.
In the eighth-grade boys’ two-mile race, Iola’s Braden Plumlee finished second in 12:34 and Kendall Jay was fourth in 13:58. The third-place medal went to Humboldt’s Jules Jones in 13:28 and Jeremiah Scheimann placed seventh in 15:10.
The seventh-grade girls’ mile had Humboldt’s Brooklyn Kuhn 12th in 9:01 and Camron Goltry 13th in 9:58.
In the seventh-grade boys’ mile race, Humboldt had Wyatt Suefert in third at 6:00, Josh Vanatta in fourth at 6:10, Edward Oneil in 15th in 7:15, Brady Slocum in 19th at 7:30 and Scott Todd in 24th in 9:41. Marmaton Valley’s Josh Wise ran the race in 6:50.
Yates Center and Humboldt go to Eureka Tuesday. Iola is at Independence Thursday and Marmaton Valley goes to Jayhawk-Linn in Mound City Thursday.
