MHS cross country sends three to state
By DAVID COLBURN
When the top Kansas high school cross country runners in Class 3A line up Saturday morning for the state championships at Wamego, three Marion High School runners will be among them.
Danielle Cope, Camille Christensen, and Daniel Goentzel scored top-10 finishes in regional competition Saturday in Wichita at Cessna Activity Center, to qualify for the state meet.
Miserable weather conditions assailed the 168 runners from 13 schools. Intermittent rain, gusty winds, and temperatures in the low 40s caused many to augment their running togs with stocking caps, gloves, and tights.
Cope covered the 4K course in 16:14, finishing fourth out of 79 contestants, 17 seconds behind the winner.
Christensen ran a strong race to finish eighth, in a time of 16:44.
Tacy Taylor (18th, 17:32), Jaclyn DeForest (32nd, 17:57), Brooke Johnson (57th, 19:02), and Katie Hett (60th, 19:07) sparked the Lady Warriors to a fourth place finish in the team standings.
The teams finishing ahead of Marion — Cheney, Remington, and Medicine Lodge — were ranked among the top seven in the state, as was Halstead, who finished fifth.
Goentzel used a strong kick at the end of the boys' 5K run to finish third with a time of 17:36, 38 seconds behind first-place finisher Michael Powell of Medicine Lodge.
Ryan Jones (23rd, 18:58), Louis Holt (24th, 19:04), Luke Bowers (43rd, 19:34), Matt Kirkpatrick (53rd, 20:11), Ben Leppke (62nd, 20:34), and Marshall Ragland (75th, 21:42) combined to lead Marion to a sixth-place finish in the 13-team boys' competition.
The Class 3A state meet Saturday at Wamego Country Club gets under way with the boy's 5K competition at 9 a.m. The girls' 4K race follows at 10 a.m.
TEAM SCORING
Boys division: 1. Wichita-Trinity Academy 50, 2. Hesston 97, 3. Hillsboro 97, 4. Halstead 102, 5. Medicine Lodge 137, 6. Marion 146, 7. Hutchinson-Trinity 146, 8. Wichita Collegiate 233, 9. Wichita-Independent 242, 10. Cheney 244, 11. Whitewater-Remington 270, 12. Leon-Bluestem 291, 13. Anthony-Harper-Chaparral 360.
Girls division: 1. Cheney 50, 2. Whitewater-Remington 68, 3. Medicine Lodge 77, 4. Marion 107, 5. Halstead 120, 6. Hutchinson-Trinity 133, 7. Hesston 156, 8. Wichita-Trinity Academy 185, 9. Garden Plain 255, 10. Leon-Bluestem 315.
