McMillen third, team sevent at first cross country meet
By BETHANY OVERSTAKE
Contributing writer
Led by Cody McMillen's third place finish, Hillsboro High School's cross country team hit the ground running Saturday with four medals in its first meet of the season at Wichita State University.
HHS showed its strength against 10 full teams, many of which were from much larger 5A and 6A schools. The Trojan boys placed seventh as a team and are set to be a 3A threat this year.
Hillsboro runs again Saturday in Wamego, where the girls will run the new KSHSAA standard 4K (2.49 miles).
In finishing third at Wichita, McMillen, a junior, ran a blazing 17:05 5K (3.1 miles).
"This was a new personal record for Cody by 40 seconds, which is outstanding," said Trojan coach Stuart Holmes.
"He ran 275 miles this summer and has the base to have a very successful season."
Also medaling in the boys' varsity race was Sean Leihy in 16th.
In their first high school cross country races, Nathan Vogel (44th, 19:47); Nicholas Mueller (45th, 19:55), and David Loewen (55th, 20:37), were welcome additions.
Johnny Christian (47th, 20:02), and Matthew Klenda (58th, 21:00) ran well in their first varsity meet.
The varsity girls ran a two-mile race, with Hannah Marsh coming in 44th with a time of 15:39, and Elissa Richert in 47th with a time of 15:58.
The junior varsity girls had three finishers in the top half, with newcomers Heidi Schroeder and Jessica Elliott both medaling.
Schroeder finished fourth overall in the JV race with a time of 14:26 and Elliott came in sixth with a 14:39. Brittany McInnis finished 16th in the JV race with a time of 15:45.
"It was great to have so many of our new runners have such a good first race," Holmes said. "All of the runners gave a good effort and it was a very good start for the season."
