Trojan boys settle for fourth at Berean meet
Even though Hillsboro High School boys' cross country team didn't quite finish with the place it believed it deserved, fourth isn't necessarily a step backward.
Especially when you consider that Mulvane, Wichita-Trinity, and Berean Academy rank among the state's best in Class 4, 3, and 2A, respectively.
That's how it turned out for the Trojans, though, Friday at the Berean Academy Invitational held at Harvey County's East Park.
"The guys again gave a good effort, they just didn't run as well as they did last week overall," head coach Stuart Holmes said.
The good news for the Trojans was that all five runners for the varsity clinched medals in their individual one-through-five races, placing no lower than fifth.
Hillsboro's best finish came from Cody McMillen, who took second (16:51) in the first man, nearly a minute behind top-ranked Mulvane's David Roberts' winning time of 15:59.
Of the five divisions, Mulvane runners had the best finishes in each one.
Nick Mueller was fifth in the second man division, beating the 18:30 mark by one second.
Nathan Vogel also secured a fifth-place finish in 18:29 while Brandon McMillen eclipsed his personal best time of 19:03 with a fourth-place 18:58 in the fourth race.
Johnny Christian rounded out the varsity meet in the fifth race, taking third at 19:05.
"Even though the varsity guys didn't have as good a day as last week, certainly Cody, Nathan, and Brandon had positive races in many aspects," Holmes said.
The Lady Trojans' trio were two runners short of being able to obtain a team score, however Heidi Schroeder led the way with a 24th-place time of 19:13.
Jessica Elliot was eight spots behind (19:32), and Clara Enns took 43rd (21:02).
The Lady Trojans' Krista Benda earned a medal in the junior varsity race with a sixth-place time of 20:49 as Hillsboro's lone runner.
The boys' junior varsity saw two previous personal bests fall as well with Cody Blacketter (ninth) cutting his former record time of 19:54 down to 19:29, and Michael Christian (36th) speeding up 22 seconds for a new best of 22:10.
The Trojans travel Thursday at 4:30 p.m. to defending Class 2A champion Sterling.
JV results
Cody Blacketter - 19:29, ninth.
Matthew Klenda - 19:40, 12.th.
David Ratzloff - 19:45, 13.th.
Alex Jost - 20:50, 23rd.
Tyrel Blecha - 22:09, 34th.
Michael Christian - 22:10, 36th.
Nick Carlson - 22:52, 40th.
