Goessel cross-country girls are state champs

By DELBERT PETERS

Staff writer

Goessel’s cross-country girls qualified for state as a team, and Saturday at Wamego they won as one, bringing home the school’s first state championship in the sport.

“The challenge of state is the intense hills during the first mile,” Coach Brian Lightner said. “With the excitement of the state meet, it is easy to go out too fast and have nothing left at the end.”

After 80 runners took off from the starting line, Lightner watched as his seven runners paced themselves through the early part of the 5,000-meter race.

Jenn Meysing and Julia Nightengale finished the first mile around the 30th position, and had moved into the top 20 by the second mile marker.

“I knew we were competing well as a team when Katherine Manis, Lauren Rymill, and Elyse Boden crossed the 2-mile mark,” Lightner said.

Senior Meysing was the first to cross the finish line in 14th place. Nightengale surged the last 10 meters to move up to 18th. Manis and Rymill crossed the finish line shoulder-to-shoulder, finishing in 31st and 32nd places, respectively. Boden came in 39th, Edel Miller, 56th, and Porclein Unruh, 64th.

Meysing and Nightengale knew when the crossed the line that they would get medals for finishing in the top 20. However, Bluebirds runners would have to wait for the race to finish, then wait some more while scores were tallied before learning their fate in team competition.

The top four finishers from each of the dozen teams in contention for the title were determined and scores computed, and when all was said and done, Goessel won with 60 points, followed by Ingalls with 65 and Greeley County with 69.

Devon LeRoy competed in the boys race, placing 40th while shaving 23 seconds off of his 2015 race time.

1A State Cross-country
goessel results

Girls

14. Jennifer Meysing, 22:32.23; 18. Julia Nightengale, 22:43.43; 31. Katherine Manis, 24:19.98; 32. Lauren Rymill, 24:26.92; 39. Elyse Boden, 25:09.82; 56. Edel Miller, 27:09.16; 64. Porclein Unruh, 28:23.00.

Boys

40. Devon LeRoy, 19:33.24.