Iola High’s varsity cross country teams will have to outrun their competition in today’s Class 4A Regional Meet to move onto the state meet next Saturday. The meet is in Garnett. The boys’ team is led by senior Kohl Endicott, who won four races this season including the Pioneer League meet Oct. 16. Overall, the boys team won three races this season and could have won more, according to their coach, Marv Smith. “Our boys got first place at Fort Scott, first place at Central Heights and first place at Iola,” Smith said. “We would have been in first place at the Parsons meet and then Independence, had those taken place.” Smith said the top-five runners for Iola have been consistent all season long. The problem the team has faced is getting a sixth and seventh runner into races for added depth. Whether it’s been injury or illness, it has been hard for the team to get into races. “But, our top-five guys have been consistent week after week after week,” Smith said. “That’s all we want. Now, just one more consistent race.” Braden Plumlee, Isaiah Fawson, Travis Hermstein and Blaine Klubek have made up the primary top-five runners along with Endicott. Smith did say that today’s meet, which takes place at 2:30 p.m., will be tougher than he had thought. Originally, he said Iola had a good chance at finishing as the top team. But today’s meet will include Paola, Ottawa, Eudora and Baldwin, which all have very strong teams. Last year those teams competed in a different regional meet. “It’s going to be really tough for our boys,” Smith said of today’s meet. “We could run very well and not get in. Endicott has a great chance at qualifying as an individual. He can break into the top 10.” Being a top-10 runner overall will automatically qualify a runner into the Class 4A State Meet. The other way to make it to state as an individual is to finish as one of the top-five runners of a team that doesn’t qualify for state. If either the boys or girls teams finish as a top-five team, the entire team qualifies for state. AS FOR THE varsity girls, Smith said they ran a great regular season of meets. “Our girls team has had an outstanding season because they’ve gotten some team medals at different places,” Smith said. The team, however, has been using only four varsity runners during the regular season and a junior varsity runner for the fifth spot. Five runners are required to earn a team score. “Our first four girls are good enough, where we can just put a JV runner in and still beat a lot of other schools,” Smith said. “That doesn’t happen at a regional. You’ve got 16 teams to go up against.” So, Smith decided to not use a fifth runner during the regional, which starts at 2 p.m.
Iola cross country heads to regional
