Trojan boys finish ninth on course
Hillsboro High School Trojan boys' cross country team has already proven that it will be a tough contender in Class 3A competition.
Saturday, the Trojans were the lone 3A team competing at the Wichita Southeast Cross Country Invitational at Cessna Activity Center.
Competing against eight 6A teams, three 5A, and independent Sunrise Academy, the Trojans emerged with a ninth-place finish out of 13 schools, scoring 202 points.
The hosting Buffaloes nipped Kapaun-Mt. Carmel 85-86 for first place.
"Against 11, 5 and 6A schools, we competed well with a number of runners setting new personal records," coach Stuart Holmes said. "The runners continued to make good progress."
Leading the way for the boys' again was Cody McMillen, who proved he can compete with some of the area's best, no matter the size of the school.
McMillen's time of 16 minutes, 57 seconds was good for eighth place out of 86 finishers, 25 seconds behind KMC's winning time by Colin Hagan.
Nicholas Mueller was the only other HHS runner to finish in the top 20, beating the 17:40 mark by three seconds for 16th.
Nathan Vogel was just two seconds out of the top 50, coming in at 51st (18:24).
The Trojans got a big lift with the return of Brandon McMillen, who was out last week with illness.
"Brandon was our fourth varsity runner which helped a lot as we have been looking for some improvement in that position," said Holmes. "He was only about 40 seconds behind Nathan."
Brandon's time of 19:03 (62nd), was 10 seconds ahead of teammate Matt Klenda, who took 65th.
Johnny Christian was 71st (19:26) while Cody Blacketter, fresh off a career-best 26th place finish a week ago in the junior varsity meet, was 78th to beat the 20:00 barrier.
The Lady Trojans also were in action, but again lacked one more runner needed to obtain a team score.
Still, Heidi Schroeder paved the way for the girls, taking 44th with a new personal record time of 18:09.
Abi Humber and Clara Ens finished within one second of each other, Humber coming in at 56th with Ens at 57th in 19:06 and 19:07, respectively.
Freshman Krista Benda rounded out the competition for Hillsboro, finishing 60th out of the 66 runners at 19:22.
"We expect all the runners to improve throughout the season," said Holmes. "But certainly one key for us as we focus toward league, regionals, and hopefully state is the continued improvement of [Klenda, Brandon McMillen, and Christian]."
The Trojans traveled Tuesday to Gypsum for a formidable meet with SE Saline, before a nine-day layoff.
Hillsboro returns to action at 4 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Harvey County East Park.
