BURLINGTON — No matter which bunch of Wildcats you were cheering for you could walk away from Saturday’s 2A regional cross country meet in Burlington happy.
Yates Center and Marmaton Valley each will be sending a team to this Saturday’s 2A cross country state meet in Wamego.
The Yates Center Wildcat boys left no doubt early as to who would be the regional team champions.
“We are all peaking at the right time,” Yates Center’s Colin Bedell said.
Sophomore Hadley Splechter led the pack around the course and was crowned regional champion with a 16:37.97. The work doesn’t end yet for Splechter and his teammates though.
“We have to work on hills,” Splechter said. “This meet has no hills and is all flat so we’ve go to prepare for that.”
The Wildcats would have swept the ‘podium’ if their had been one with juniors Bedell and Jordan Smith finishing second and third respectively.
“We are pretty pumped up,” Smith said about going 1-2-3.
Even the ‘never satisfied’ Splechter was pretty pleased.
“We knew we had the top three times going in, but you can never know and it is really good to know that we have that going into state,” Splechter said. “We can do better, but I’m not going to complain about it, you can always do better.”
Bedell ran a 17:01.01 at Burlington and will be looking to get some redemption from his 43rd-place showing at state last season when he got caught in a pack early and couldn’t recover to get to where he thought he could.
“I am really ready to get back to state for some redemption, if you will,” Bedell said. “I am definitely going to stay with the lead pack and hopefully get top-five.”
Yates Center coach Rex McVey is excited to see what Bedell is capable of this season.
“It will helped him get that redemption from last year when he got caught in a pack of kids and couldn’t get out,” McVey said. “I look for our top-three to be all in the medal running.”
McVey has also been very pleased with the growth he has seen from Smith this year.
“He continues to impress me,” McVey said. “Coming out for his first season and running the times he is now just shows what dedication he has. That proves a lot of character right there.”
Smith credits Splechter and Bedell with his rapid improvement.
“My times have improved by about two minutes and I am enjoying it so much more,” Smith said. “They have helped me so much, I couldn’t do it if it wasn’t for them.”
Yates Center’s dynamic duo of freshmen runners, Enrique Rodriguez and Asher Sievers finished seventh and 12th with 19:01.5 and 19:25.4 respectively.
“These are all awesome kids,” McVey said. “They run because they love to run.”
Rounding out the Wilcat runners were Braydon Gaulding and Aaron King with 23rd- and 32nd-place marks.
Marmaton Valley’s Dmitri Lamping was 47th with a 23:38.64.
The Marmaton Valley girls team finished as the regional runner-up and punched their tickets to state.
Junior Shelby Yoho led the Wildcat effort with a 21:46.31 to finish as the meet’s runner-up individually.
“I thought I did really, really, really good,” Yoho said while trying to talk with a smile from ear to ear. “I had my personal-best time and was able to get second… I was hoping to get into the top-ten as an individual and us placing as a team.”
The Wildcat star made a late pass to edge out Rosalia-Flinthills’ Ashley Melugin to get second.
Freshman Christina Mynatt was the next Wildcat to cross the finish line. She ran a 23:25.54 to finish in 13th-place.
Mynatt’s classmates Allison Heim and Heather Hicks were the next Marmaton Valley finishers with 20th- and 24th-place marks.
“I thought our freshmen did amazing,” Yoho said. “They improved a whole, whole lot.”
Sophomore Elizabeth Johnson rounded out the Wildcat runners with a 29th-place time.
This year’s Marmaton Valley squad is the first girls’ cross country team to ever go to the state meet as a team.
STATE SCHEDULE
The Yates Center boys will run at Wamego Country Club at 11:10 a.m. on Saturday.
The Marmaton Valley girls will run at 12:55 p.m.
