INDEPENDENCE — Despite dealing with injuries and illness, Iola High’s cross country squad still managed a number of personal-best times at a meet in Independence Thursday.
The varsity boys claimed third place overall among 12 schools, led individually by Tyler Powelson and Trent Latta, who claimed fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Powelson ran the 5K course in 16 minutes, 56 seconds. Latta was 10 seconds behind at 17:04.
“Tyler and Trent ran as a twosome for the entire race, passing an Ark City runner in the final 800 yards,” IHS coach Marvin Smith said.
Jacob Cooper’s time of 19:17 placed him 33rd in his first varsity race.
Labette County High won the boys varsity with 27 points, followed by Pittsburg in second with 42 points.
Iola scored 67 points, even without one of its top runners, Jeremy Spears, who is nursing a leg injury.
On the varsity girls side, Abigail Taylor placed sixth “in a really strong field of runners,” Smith said, with a time of 17 minutes flat on the 4K course.
She was Iola’s only entry. Jo Lohman was sidelined with knee problems.
Pittsburg, which like the boys squad also utilized runners from Pittsburg St. Mary’s-Colgan, won the girls varsity with 43 points, followed by Frontenac with 49.
The meet was held at a new location this year, at the Independence Community College campus.
“It was a really good course,” Smith said. “You were always going up a hill or downhill, and some hills were long and somewhat steep. We had a lot of personal bests, but too many for me to mention.
Zach St. Clair’s mark of 19:17 was the best among all junior varsity boy runners. Travis Hermstein was fourth at 19:31.
Shannon Vogel’s time of 20:33 was good for sixth overall in the JV girls race.
Iola’s results follow
Varsity boys
4. Tyler Powelson, 16:56
5. Trent Latta, 17:04
16. Michael Wilson, 18:31
25. Blaine Klubek, 18:59
33. Jacob Cooper, 19:17
42. Bryan Mueller, 20:09
Varsity girls
6. Abigail Taylor, 17:00
Junior varsity boys
1. Zach St. Clair, 19:17
6. Travis Hermstein, 19:31
7. Tyler Holloway, 19:42
8. Levi Baker, 19:56
16. Colby Works 20:53
19. Jason Tidd, 21:17
27. Sagar Patel, 22:38
28. Thomas Elder 22:42
30. Yohon Sinclair 23:08
32. Cole Cescon, 23:21
34. Kaleb Beckham, 23:50
36. Drew Smith, 24:04
41. Ankit Gandhi, 25:35
42. Garrett Prall, 25:37
47. Tyler Heinrich, 26:07
Junior varsity girls
6. Shannon Vogel, 20:33
23. Klair Vogel, 24:06
26 Courtney Smith 27:16
