Senior Sydney Owens gets out ahead of the pack during the Frontier League meet Thursday. Owens finished second only behind junior teammate Hanna Keltner with a time of 19:58.61." />
Senior Sydney Owens gets out ahead of the pack during the Frontier League meet Thursday. Owens finished second only behind junior teammate Hanna Keltner with a time of 19:58.61.
The girls cross country team’s streak of Frontier League championships came to an end Thursday night after the team finished second overall behind Baldwin.
The team had won four straight titles.
Senior Sydney Owens said a fifth straight championship would’ve been nice, but the team will settle with second place as there are bigger fish to fry.
“I think that as much as it’s disappointing that we didn’t get that fifth straight title, I think this isn’t what we’ve been working towards,” Owens said. “This isn’t our main goal. Our main goal is that state race. So, as much as we wanted it today, I think we’ve got to focus on the bigger picture, and that’s state.”
Even though the team placed second, five Cardinals finished in the top 21. The top seven runners were named first team all-Frontier League, the next seven were second team all-Frontier League and the bottom seven of the top 21 were all-Frontier League honorable mentions.
Junior Hanna Keltner was the league champion with a time of 19:28.81, and Owens was the runner-up with a 19:58.61 time.
“It feels very nice. It just shows me kind of the hard work paying off,” Keltner said about placing first. “Shout out to Sydney, she’s a great training partner. Me and her went one and two today. I’m really proud of her and our team.”
Sophomore Addison Williams and senior Addison Metcalf were also right next to each other in the standings as Williams placed 11th with a 21:38.53 time and Metcalf finished 12th with a 21:49.84.
Senior Sophie Whalen placed 19th with a 22:50.02 time.
Head coach Jim Barnard said it was good for the girls team to see how they stack up against their competition, especially Baldwin, because they haven’t seen them in a while.
“We haven’t raced Baldwin since Wamego four weeks ago. So, it was a good opportunity to see how they race, how they pack up, so now we can do the math,” Barnard said. “The good news is our girls are not far behind. Like, we can run with the girls that just finished one place, two places ahead of us. Now, we just need to do it.”
Baldwin had five runners finish in the top 10. Sophomore Irelyn Kennedy led the Bulldogs as she finished in third.
On the boys side, the Cardinals placed fourth overall. Spring Hill defended their Frontier League title to repeat as champions. Tonganoxie and Baldwin came in second and third, respectively.
Senior Zach Arnold said he liked what he saw from the boys team against some fierce competition.
“We’ve got a lot of tough schools to run against. I mean, our league is no slouch, that’s for sure,” Arnold said. “I think I saw a lot of good things today. I think we ran pretty well, and just always using each other to push ourselves. I think we did that just fine today.”
Arnold finished in second with a time of 16:46.84.
“I’m always running against great runners year after year in this league, so it feels great to be able to get one of the top places today,” Arnold said.
Spring Hill junior Calen George was the league champion with a time of 16:30.15.
Senior Alex Clobes was the other Cardinal to place in the top 21 as he placed 11th overall with a time of 18:00.78.
Barnard said regionals is going to be a close competition for the boys.
“I think it’s going to come down to, at regionals next week, Tonganoxie, Baldwin and us, and someone is going to be left out,” Barnard said. “So, we got to use what we saw today to our advantage to kind of learn from that and see where we need to place next week.”
Now with their sights set on regionals, each team hopes to bounce back in order to make it back to state.
The girls team will be looking to defend their regional championship from last season and make it back to state to defend their back-to-back state titles.
Keltner said the girls team is going to be fired up after their Frontier League title streak was snapped.
“Obviously, it’s a little sad losing today, but we’re going to use that anger and use that kind of frustration next week to have even more of a competitive edge to our competitors,” Keltner said. “We’re going to use that to our advantage.”
The boys team will be looking to make its fifth straight state appearance. Arnold said when it gets this late in the season, the boys team needs to be responsible so they are in good shape for regionals.
“I think as we go into regionals and state, you need to really take accountability for yourself,” Arnold said. “It’s not just the stuff you do at practice, but it’s got to be the stuff you do at home. The amount of sleep you’re getting, what you’re eating, stuff like that.”
Regionals is set for Oct. 21 at Johnson County Community College. The starting gun will sound at 10:15 a.m. for the girls race and the boys will start at 10:50 a.m.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected]
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