GARNETT — Iola High’s Mustangs finished fourth at the Anderson County High Invitational Thursday. The Mustangs and Fillies opened the 2012 cross country season.
Baldwin won the varsity boys’ team race with 37 points. St. James Academy of Lenexa was second with 58 and Wellsville was third with 94 points.
The Mustangs had three medal winners in the top 30 and scored 125 points as a team for fourth. Chanute was fifth with 146 points.
Iola only had two varsity girl runners and did not have a team score. Baldwin and St. James are state ranked on the girls side and had 10 of the top 14 finishers.
Freshman Abigail Taylor and sophomore Jo Lohman ran in the girls’ varsity 4K race. Taylor claimed the 10th-place medal in 17 minutes, 43 seconds. Lohman was 44th in 20:34.
“Wow, what a race Abigail had until a wrong turn cost her five places,” said Marvin Smith, IHS head cross country coach. “She was solidly in fifth with 200 yards to go but made a wrong turn on the course.
“By the time she retraced her route, several runners had passed her. Jo was disappointed with her time but she placed in the middle of the pack and the heat had an effect on all times.”
In the boys’ varsity 5K race, Jeremy Spears paced the Mustangs with a 13th-place finish in 19:05. Trent Latta was right with him ending up 15th in 19:13. Tyler Powelson. All three are juniors.
“Jeremy ran a very steady race moving from being in the high 20s until he got very near to the top 10 runners,” Smith said. “Trent started very fast and ran with the top three for the first half of the race.”
Smith said Spears caught Latta in the final half mile. Powelson had a good race but Smith said he needs to relax more during a race.
Kohl Endicott placed 36th in 20:45 and Michael Wilson was 55th in 21:47. Both are sophomores. Seniors Jordan Strickler and Jason Tidd were 64th and 70th, respectively in 22:53 and 25:01.
Iola’s junior varsity boys were fourth as a team. Jonathan Tidd led the Mustangs in the 5K race taking 19th in 23:09. Others for Iola: 21. Tyler Holloway, 23:21; 23. Jacob Cooper, 23:27; 29. Travis Hermstein, 23:43; 46. Levi Baker, 25:20; 67. Gerardo Rojas, 27:22; 82. Drew Smith, 29:53; 91. Garrett Prall, 33:26; 92. Kaleb Beckham, 33:35.
In the junior varsity girls’ race, which had 120 runners in it, Iola’s Shannon Vogel was 78th in 26:17, Klair Vogel was 98th in 29:43 and Courtney Smith was 99th in 29:50.
Iola’s Zach St. Clair led the Mustang freshmen to a third-place team finish. St. Clair won the 4K freshman race in 16:31. Yohon Sinclair was 20th in 20:30 followed by Sagar Patel in 28th at 22:02, Cole Cescon in 31st at 22:07, Thomas Elder in 32nd in 22:08, Tyler Heinrich in 38th at 24:10 and Ankit Gandhi in 40th at 24:25.
Iola’s Megan Klubek and Braden Plumlee won the eighth-grade races. Klubek won the girls’ race in 14:40, finishing 10 seconds in front of the second-place runner. Plumlee led from start to finish in the boys’ two-mile race, winning in 12:30. Kendall Jay was fifth in 14:20.
