CHANUTE — The Iola High School cross country team qualified a trio of runners and finished in fourth place as a team at the Chanute 4A Regional competition on Saturday morning.
Mustangs competing at the state meet in Wamego will be seniors Jesse Taylor and Kaster Trabuc and sophomore Cole Moyer who finished in eighth, ninth and 10th place, respectively.
“Coming back this year and working as a team we all saw it as our final hurrah, for me and Jesse especially, as we’ve been a part of an Iola team that’s been good for years,” said Trabuc. “Knowing that we have a legacy to carry helped us all focus on the best we could be.”
Also running at the Chanute regional meet were Brennan Coffield, Jadyn Silvey and Alejandro Escalante.
Taylor and Trabuc were neck and neck at the finish line. Taylor crossed with a time of 18:23; Trabuc’s time was 18:24. Moyer was on their heels, coming in next with a time of 18:34.
“He’s (Taylor) matured a lot,” said Iola head coach Brittany Daugharthy. “He’s really stepped up his game and taken on any workout and any challenge that we’ve given him and uses it here. They always come out ready to compete and today was no different.”
Winfield’s Corban Priest, Andru Owens and Jaden Brown took the top three spots with times of 17:21, 17:47 and 17:47, respectively.
Wellington’s Hunter Lough placed fourth overall with a time of 17:58 and Fort Scott’s Trevin Worthing came in fifth at 18:10.
Easton Colburn came across in sixth place with an 18:11 mark and Winfield’s Mark Thompson in seventh with a mark of 18:16.
Iola’s Coffield, a freshman, placed 33rd overall with a finish of 20:5 and Silvey, a freshman, was 40th place with a time of 21:40. Escalante, a sophomore, placed in 45th overall with a 21:59 finish.
“They are a really dedicated group and they want to take each other with them,” Daugharthy said. “There’s no ‘I’ in our team here, they just want to be a part of everyone’s success. There’s a certain joy seeing them do everything you know they can do.”
The Mustangs finished in fourth place overall as a team with 94 points while Winfield, Wellington and Chanute rounded out the top three team places with 30, 69 and 76 points, respectively. Fort Scott came in fifth with 110 points, Field Kindley in sixth with 148 points and Labette County combined for 153 points, good for seventh place overall.
“We’re always excited, going to state is an experience not everyone gets to have and even coming to regionals is not something everybody gets to do so it’s just a special meet in itself,” said Iola head coach Brittany Daugharthy. “The goal is to take as many as you can to state.”
The Iola High School cross country team will race at the state competition in Wamego next Saturday.
