Trojan boys' team qualifies for state
Same course, same results for the Trojan boys cross country team Oct. 25 at the Ellsworth cross country regional.
This time, it was the second-ranked hosting Bearcats winning by a more comfortable margin, edging the third-ranked runner-up Trojans, 39-53.
The boys' team advances to Saturday's Class 3A state meet at Wamego while the Lady Trojans ended their season with a strong showing.
Making their second trip to the Ellsworth golf course in nearly three weeks, one of the goals for both teams was to run the course 20 seconds faster than what they did Oct. 7.
"The boys improved by a 12 second average to earn the regional runner-up plaque and earn a trip to state while the girls finished the season with a very positive race running on the average 20 seconds faster than last time on the course," Trojan coach Stuart Holmes said.
Led by Mandy Estus' 30th place time of 14:48, the girls' team finished eighth with 181 points. Elissa Richert posted the second best finish, running a 32nd place time of 16:19.
"The girls have had tremendous improvement this year and now have a good foundation of running experience from which to build on for the future," said Holmes. "If they will dedicate themselves to running most of next summer, they can have a competitive impact next year."
The Bearcats also won the girls' division, beating out second-place Beloit, 45-55.
Ellsworth will remain a team standing between the Trojans and a possible state title Saturday. For the third time this season, the Bearcats kept the Trojans from a first place finish.
The Trojans have at least two runners capable of winning an individual state title, the Yoder twins, Aaron and Danny.
Aaron cut 37 seconds off his Oct. 7 time, but it still left him with a third-place time of 17:13 behind Minneapolis' Evan Cox and TMP's Cole Ginther.
Cox ran a meet-best 16:49 while Ginther took second in 16:54.
Danny came in seventh place, 34 seconds behind his twin and the second of five Trojans to place in the top 18.
Kody Borg finished 13th (18:44), and Sean Leihy and Karl Magnuson fought a heated battle for 17th with Leihy claiming it in 18:57.
Posting a 19:12 finish on the course the first time, Magnuson took 18th in 19:00.
Another improvement came from Ric Johnson, who knocked nearly a minute off his previous time for 26th place (19:31).
"Our training has been designed to peak at state, and so we expect to run better this week at Wamego," said Holmes. "A number of the guys have even been getting together for the last month on Saturday mornings to run in preparation for our 9 a.m. race time.
Girls' results
30. Estus, 14:48. 32. Richert, 16:19. 47. Jacque Fisher, 16:19. 54. Kim Givens, 17:29. 57. Melissa Heibert, 19:51.
Boys
3. A. Yoder, 17:13. 7. D. Yoder, 17:47. 13. Borg, 18:44. 17. Leihy, 18:57. 18. Magnuson, 19:00. 26. Johnson, 19:31. 30. Nate Holmes, 19:47.
