BALDWIN — Kaster Trabuc is going to state.
The Iola High junior was the only Mustang runner — male or female — to qualify from Saturday’s Class 4A Regional Meet at the Baldwin Golf Course
Trabuc completed the 5K run in 17 minutes, 30.82 seconds, good for ninth overall.
He led Iola’s contingent, followed by Cole Moyer, a freshman who took 12th at 17:49.26 — about 13 seconds out of the final qualifying spot for state.
Juniors Jesse Taylor and Eli Adams finished 24th and 26th, respectively, sophomore Japeth Rutoh was 30th, senior Drake DeLaTorre ended his high school career with a 55th-place finish, and juniors Travis Wanker and Drake Mathew took 57th and 59th, respectively.
The Iola boys took fourth as a team with 101 points.
Bishop Miege, based out of Shawnee Mission, won the boys team title with 71 points, one point better than Louisburg at 72. Eudora claimed the final team qualifying spot in third at 83 points.
The state meet will be Saturday at Wamego.
On the girls’ side, Iola’s Sage Barney and Elanie Sturgeon both wrapped up their high school careers with solid showings.
Barney shaved about a minute off her career-best time in finishing 29th at 22:36.92. Sturgeon was 41st at 23:51.61.
With only two runners, Iola did not have enough to qualify for a team score.
Eudora took the team title with 32 points, followed by Baldwin with 40 and Louisburg with 89.
Elsewhere, Humboldt High senior Drew Wilhite made it a perfect 4-for-4 cross country career. Four years as a runner; four years a state qualifier.
Wilhite took home third at Saturday’s Class 3A Regional hosted at Fredonia, a meet delayed a few hours by severe weather.
Wilhite took third at 18:11, a fraction of a second behind the second-place finisher.
He’ll be joined at state by Humboldt’s McKenna Jones, who took eighth in the girls race at 22:27. Jones has consistently been Humboldt’s top runner in her freshman campaign.
