Bound for state: Goessel harriers head for Wamego
By DELBERT PETERS
Contributing writer
"I wore spikes for the first time this year since we knew this course would have a lot of hills, and now I have blisters," said a limping but satisfied Janessa Wedel. The only runner on the Goessel girls' cross country team finished 8th individually at the 1A regional meet held below the dam at Lake Afton. Her time of 14:06 was the best of this season and has earned her a place at the state meet in Wamego at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Wedel ran cross country as a freshman last year and distance events in track and field last year but this will be her first experience at a state meet.
Evan Fast led the Bluebird boys' team again at this meet with a seventh place medal and Zach Plenert picked up the tenth place medal. Kellen Jenkins and Brady Peters finished 11th and 19th respectively. Two freshman on the team, Cameron Voth and Jake Schrag, are also part of the team that will run at 12:30 p.m. in Wamego.
Personal times were not their best at this meet due to the difficulty of the course. Lebo won the regional meet, Goessel came in second, 14 points ahead of Fairfield and 16 points ahead of Flinthills.
"We ran all summer long," said Senior Zach Plenert.
But why was that different than last year?
"I actually wanted to do good this year," Plenert continued.
The extra motivation helped as Fast, Plenert, Jenkins, and Peters finished in that same order in eight of nine meets this year.
A nervous Coach Bontrager said before the meet, "If we run our normal races, we have a very good chance to go on to state as a team."
After the races finished, he was seen trying to get some preliminary results and not until the actual results were figured could he celebrate.
Approximately 70 runners will compete in the 1A state meet and Goessel will be among 12 schools competing for team titles.
