Kaw Valley Cross Country Recap:
By: Garret Jones, Head Coach
Wamego Invitational
Saturday, September 10th
The Wamego Invitational came the morning after a storm, which brought with it a cold front and great temperatures and weather for the races. The high for the day was about 75, with a North wind of 10-15 mph during the morning.
Junior Varsity
Freshmen Danielle Bittner and Senior Laura Gillum ran great races in the Girls Junior Varsity division, placing 14th and 19th respectively in a field of 80. Both ladies medaled and posted quality 5k times of 25:32 and 25:41 on the challenging course.
A fairly young and new to cross country group of seven boys ran in the Boys Junior Varsity race, facing the largest field of the day with 174 runners from 1A-4A schools. Matthew Stillion was the first to cross the line in 23:49 (103rd), Ben Price set a major Personal Record (PR) and ran 23:50 (104th), followed by William Stillion 24:20 (115th), Grant Rieschick 25:07 (126th), Marvin Cummings also set a large PR with 25:42 (141st), Ryan Ehrlich 27:00 (150th), and Trent Mulligan 28:47 (164th).
Varsity Girls
The Kaw Valley Varsity Girls were short not one, but two of their expected top 5 scorers at Wamego due to outside obligations and sickness. Even without the low points of Katie Dohrman and Rachel Hutley, the KV ladies ran well and moved up in the field throughout the race. Taylor Bittner led the squad, crossing the line in 23:26, good for 31st in a field of 105. MaKenzie Decklar closed very well over the last mile to finish 32nd in 23:30. Erica Shults and Callie Perry both ran brave races, moving into medaling position in the last mile - they ran 23:44 (37th) and 23:59 (40th) respectively. Emily Stewart and Layne Cole finished in 24:56 (55th) and 25:17 (60th) respectively.
The ladies finished 6th as a team out of 12, the same placement as last year. Hopefully the ladies will be able to continue individual successes, while also boasting full team strength in the future.
Varsity Boys
The Kaw Valley Varsity Boys were short their top returner from Mission Valley in Andrew Hudson, due to another obligation. Five of the six varsity boys were toeing the 5k race line at Wamego for the first time in their careers. They all ran smart and finished well, led by a stellar performance by Freshmen Tristan McCann, who finished with a huge PR of 20:08 (50th in the field of 138). Stephen Garland ran 21:05 (71st), Caleb Perry was 21:50 (92nd), Miles Moore 21:57 (95th), David McCarthy 23:25 (117), and Zach Archer 23:34 (119th).
Kaw Valley Cross Country (High School only) will compete next at the Onaga Invitational on Thursday, September 15th. Girls race @ 4:00 PM. Boys race @ 4:30 PM.
Results of the individual events can be seen at:
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