GARNETT -— Iola High and Humboldt High cross country runners ran their opening races of the 2011 season in extreme heat Thursday. Even with a shift of almost two hours in start time, the Anderson County High Invitational was run under difficult weather conditions.
“It was hot, hot, hot. We had a few runners who struggled in the heat but we got them cooled down after their races and everybody seemed to recover well enough,” said Marvin Smith, Iola head coach.
With the change to a 6 o’clock start time, Anderson County combined races. High school varsity and junior varsity runners ran together in the two divisions — girls and boys. They separated out the runners afterward for the medals for the four races.
The Mustang varsity took fourth and Chanute won the meet. The Mustang junior varsity was third while the Humboldt junior varsity boys placed fourth.
Iola’s girls finished seventh in the junior varsity race. There were 18 schools at the meet.
“ I didn’t run Sydney Owens, Jo Lohman or Kelsey Larson for the girls or Roman Yocham and Trent Latta for the boys. Trent has an Achilles problem and Kelsey has a sprained ankle,” Smith said.
Smith said he elected to hold those five runners out for a couple of reasons. But the main reason is he plans to enter them in the Rim Rock meet in Lawrence on Sept. 24,
At Anderson County, there were 30 medals awarded in each varsity race and 15 medals in junior varsity action. There were 10 medals awarded in freshman boys’ race and eight each in the seventh-and eighth-grade races.
Jeremy Spears led the Iola boys’ varsity finishing the 5K race in 19 minutes, 30 seconds for 10th. Christian Kauth was 19th in 20:31 followed by Bryan Miller in 20th at 20.34.
Tyler Powelson finished 24th in 20:40 and Jordan Strickler was 29th in 21:01. Michael Armstrong placed 56th in 22.37.
The Mustang junior varsity was led by Bryan Mueller with fourth place in 22:28. Michael Wilson was 11th in 22:58. Humboldt’s Michael Davis picked up the sixth-place medal in 22:28.
Smith said he included the overall placing of the other junior varsity runners. They were: 77. Tyler Shelby, 24:01, 78. Gerardo Rojas, 24:06, 81. Jason Tidd, 24:17, 84. Levi Baker, 24:46, 85. Arion Kunkler, 24:51, 88. Jacob Cooper, 25:06, 90. Jarrett Mosbrucker, 25:14, 100. Christian Ruby, 26:07.
Humboldt head coach Eric Carlson turned in the placings among junior varsity runners for the Cubs.
Nick Keazer was 23rd in 24:34 followed by Dylan Greve in 38th at 26:00, Kendall West at 44th in 27:02, Kile Martin at 49th in 30:06, Logan Yokum at 50th in 30:12 and Jimmy Mangold at 53rd in 37:18.
Kristin Todd of Humboldt placed 52nd in the junior varsity girls’ race. She ran the 2.5-mile race in 26:39.
Iola’s junior varsity girls were led by April Elder in 25.09 followed by Jennica Rausch in 26:27. Shannon Vogel ran the 2.5-mile race in 27:00 with Morgan Wilson finishing in 27:29 and Carrie Mock in 29:22.
The Mustang freshmen won their division with 59 points. Kohl Endicott earned the third-place medal in 17:32 in the 2.5-mile race. Blaine Klubek was the fifth-place medalist in 18:00. Travis Hermstein ran it in 19:13 followed Jonathan Tidd in 19:26 and Logan Roettgen in 22:35.
Iola’s Megan Klubek finished second in the one-mile seventh-grade girls’ race in 7:16. Humboldt’s Padyne Durand finished in 8:49.
Humboldt’s Johnny Hull ran the eighth-grade boys’ two-mile race in 9:09. Iola’s Colby Works placed third in the race in 14:54.
Iola’s teams go to Fort Scott this coming Thursday. Humboldt is at Girard.
Iola, Humboldt harriers run hot at ACHS meet
