BIG HILL RESERVOIR — It’s perhaps the toughest course of the cross country season.
Labette County’s Big Hill Reservoir features a little bit of everything. It starts and ends in a valley, but the middle features steep inclines as runners meander their way along the reservoir’s western shoreline.
Tack on temperatures in the upper 80s, and a healthy heaping of Kansas humidity, and just finishing upright is an accomplishment in itself.
So it stands that the Big Hill meet, hosted by Parsons High School, also provided the highlight of the early portion of Iola High’s 2021 cross country season.
Led by Mustang junior Jesse Taylor’s first-place finish — his first ever cross country individual title — the Mustangs placed four of the top six runners in easily outdistancing Anderson County for the team championship as well.
Not to be outdone, Iola’s Elanie Sturgeon and Sage Barney placed fifth and seventh, respectively, in the girls race, to earn medals.
“I was proud of how I did,” said Taylor, whose time of 20 minutes, 18.62 seconds is actually about 2½ minutes slower than what he normally runs on a typical 5K. “But this course is so tough.”
In fact, Taylor’s time was a full 22 seconds ahead of his Mustang teammate, freshman Cole Moyer, in second.
Tack on Kaster Trabuc’s fourth-place finish, Eli Adams in sixth, and you have a Mustang-dominated leaderboard.
Also withstanding the brutal conditions were J.J. Rutoh in 15th, Drake DeLaTorre in 17th and Travis Wanker in 18th.
Taylor took the lead within the first 200 yards of the starting gun, and never looked back.
In fact, the biggest challenge, Taylor said, was not having any competitors to help him set his pace.
“It’s definitely more challenging when it’s just the cart in front of you, and there isn’t anybody around you,” he said. “You don’t really know what pace to go.”
Nevertheless, Taylor maintained his lead throughout.
The victory comes after Taylor finished in third in his first two meets of the season.
“This is training for state for sure,” said Taylor, who has raced at the state meet in Wamego as both a freshman and sophomore, and is looking to make it three trips in a row.
