MOUND CITY — Marmaton Valley High’s Zach Louk and Ryan Smith captured top-10 finishes at Saturday’s 2010 Kansas Class 2A Regional Cross Country Meet.
Louk, a junior, posted a third-place finish in the 5K race. His time was 16 minutes, 51.55 seconds, 25 seconds behind the first-place finisher, Daniel Classen of Berean Academy.
Smith, a sophomore, claimed the 10th-place medal in 18:02.77. No other area runners qualified for state.
It will be Louk’s third trip to the Kansas Class 2A state meet. He was 19th and earned state honors last year.
This will be Smith’s first state cross country meet. They will run in the Class 2A boys’ race at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Wamego Country Club.
There is an admission charge for the state meet — $7 for adults and $6 for students, kindergarten through high school.
Yates Center High senior Paul Stockebrand finished 24th in 18:52.61. Sophomore Sam Aguirre placed 44th in 21:09.35.
“We knew coming in that this regional was going to field a very strong competition and that both Paul and Sam would have to run extremely strong races to qualify for the state meet,” said Kevin Barnes, YCHS cross country coach.
Maranatha Academy was the boys’ team champion at the regional hosted by Jayhawk-Linn High School.
Humboldt High’s Cubs finished fifth as a team. Senior Reece Criger led the Cubs with a 29th-place finish in 19:29.06.
Senior Jacob Jones was 39th in 20:16.09. Sophomore Nick Keazer placed 43rd in 20:39.49, sophomore Dylan Greve was 47th in 21:43.22, freshman Michael Davis placed 51st in 22:50 and sophomore Logan Yokum was 53rd in 23:16.
Humboldt was the only local school with runners in the girls’ regional 4K race.
Kelsey Cramer, a sophomore, placed 36th in 22:50. Sophomore Kristin Todd was 39th in 24:15.17 and junior Michaela Bartlett was 40th in 24:15.73.
Humboldt senior Raquel Hill, who had been a three-time state meet qualifier, was unable to run because of medical reasons.
MV Louk, Smith qualify for state
