HHS cross country boys place first at Lindsborg
Boys earn five individual medals
Coach Stuart Holmes predicted correctly — that this "young boys' team will surprise some people." Indeed, the Trojans did just that by taking first, for the fifth year in a row, at the Smoky Valley cross country meet held Thursday in Lindsborg.
Seven teams competed at the five kilometer-meet with Hillsboro scoring 23 followed by Hesston with 27, Council Grove third with 31, Hutch Trinity fourth with 47, Smoky Valley fifth with 64, Ellinwood sixth with 96, and Sterling seventh with 104. Haven did not have a full team of runners.
According to Holmes, at this meet the top five places from both the senior-junior division and the sophomore-freshmen division.
The girls' team placed sixth scoring 79 points.
"Everyone did an outstanding job," Coach Holmes said. "The kids ran hard despite the temperature being in the 90s and it being the first race of the season."
The top 10 runners received medals at the meet. Scoring for the boys' team were Kody Borg placing third with a time of 18:56 and Karl (Westie) Magnuson placing 10th with a time of 20:02 in the senior-junior division.
Also adding to the team's total points were Sean Leihy who placed first with a time of 19:04, Nate Holmes placed second with a time of 19:09, and Cody McMillen seventh with a time of 19:49 in the sophomore-freshmen division.
"The guys really did a great job of bouncing back mentally and running well after the tough news last week that Rick Johnson is out for the season with a broken bone in his leg," Coach Holmes said.
"Ric had done such a good job of getting into shape this summer and was running great the first two weeks of practice," Holmes said. "So we will miss him."
Holmes said Johnson's contribution would have made him one of the team's top two or three runners.
"We hope Ric is back healthy again next year," Holmes said.
Others boys scoring for the senior-juniors were Daniel Bookless who was 16th with a time of 20:40; Robert Jost was 17th with a time of 21:01; Clint Schneider was 30th with a time of 25:40.
In the sophomore-freshmen division, Zach Magnuson was 31st with a time of 25:11; Zach Luthi 40th with a time of 29:20; Jon Janzen 28th with a time of 24:25; Tyrel Blecha 39th with a time of 29:15; Alex Jost 30th with a time of 25:07; and Lance Kliewer 45th with a time of 30:35.
On the girls' side, Greta Kliewer placed 14th with a time of 17:59 in the senior-junior division.
In the sophomore-freshmen division, Hannah Marsh was 11th with a time of 15:24; Elissa Richert 17th with a time of 16:06; Megan Peachey 30th with a time of 19:11; and Megan McCarty 32nd with a time of 20:16.
"The girls and guys had a good start to the season and were able to establish times that we can hopefully look to improve next week," Holmes said.
"With more training and experience, each week we'll keep working for improvement which is the measure of success that we use with each of the runners," Holmes added.
Overcoming the heat, hills, wind, and a key injury, the Trojans made it a great meet, according to Holmes.
"All the athletes should feel good about the hard work that they have put in and what they have accomplished just finishing a race of that distance and under those tough conditions," Holmes said.
The Trojan harriers will compete at 4 p.m. today in Hesston.
