HUMBOLDT — Humboldt varsity boys cross country team ran its way into the Class 3A State Meet at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence Friday. The Cubs qualified for the state meet by placing second as a team at the Class 3A Regional in Burlington Saturday. YATES CENTER’S varsity boys cross country team also had two runners qualify for a state meet. Drake Busteed and Brett Holloway will be running in the Class 2A State Meet in Wamego.
“They did about what I expected,” coach Eric Carlson said. “I told them at the beginning of the year that they could have a good chance at qualifying for state and maybe getting a league championship. But, they had to work hard. They put in the time and they put in the effort.”
Tanner Orth led the Cubs Saturday by completing the 5k course in 19 minutes, one second for a fifth-place individual finish. Joe Kline followed right after Orth in sixth with a time of 19:05.
Ethan Bartlett was the third Cub to cross the finish line, finishing in 20:04 for 17th place. Soon after in 19th place, Kyle Doolittle clocked in at 20:08. Josh Vanatta finished in 29th in 20:40, Wyatt Seufert followed in 35th in 21:11 and Layton Gillespie finished 56th in 23:49.
As a team, Humboldt finished the course in one hour, 39 minutes.
The team ran the Rim Rock course earlier this season on Sept. 27. Kline finished the course in the fastest time for Humboldt in 19:20. Orth finished the course soon after in 19:24.
Kline said that he has one goal for Friday’s meet.
“I beat Tanner last time,” Kline said. “That’s my goal, to beat Tanner.”
Bartlett finished in 21:22, Seufert timed in at 21:24 and Vanatta clocked in at 22:59.
“I hope they won’t be nervous because we’ve already have run this once,” Carlson said. “But, I do know that it’s a big meet — the state championship. So, hopefully they won’t be nervous and will go out and run their race. If they run their race, they will do a good job.”
Rim Rock Farm is a much hillier course than the team normally runs.
“It’s pretty tough, much tougher than anything we’ve run on,” Carlson said. “We really don’t practice very many hills because there really aren’t many around here. Rim Rock is pretty much a big up and down hill.”
Orth said the race should be a good experience for the team. He is also excited to race in the state meet — his first as a member of the team.
“We had a good season,” Orth said. “We achieved what we wanted to from the beginning.”
The Class 3A State Meet is Friday starts at 11:30 a.m.
To get to the state meet, the pair had to run at a Class 2A Regional Meet on Saturday in Pleasanton. Busteed finished the 5k race in third place in 17:50. Holloway finished in 13th in 18:44.
The duo will run in Wamego at the Class 2A State Meet at noon Saturday.
Humboldt runs to state
