Lady Cats will head to state for third consecutive year
Louisburg senior Trinity Moore finished sixth overall to lead the Lady Cats to a third place team finish and a spot at the state meet in Wamego.
BALDWIN CITY – One by one, members
of the Louisburg girls cross country team crossed the finish line and coach
John Reece was unsure whether or not his team did enough to qualify for state.
The Lady Cats had made school
history by qualifying the last two seasons, but the third time was a little bit
in jeopardy – that was until the results were released.
As it turned out, Reece didn’t
need to be so worried.
Louisburg finished third overall with
96 points Saturday at the Class 4A regional meet at Baldwin Golf Course, and
beat out Bishop Miege by six points to earn a spot at the state meet this
weekend in Wamego.
The team of Trinity Moore, Carlee Gassman,
Reese Johnson, Claire Brown, Ruth Minster, Kennady Wilkerson and Bree Gassman
will compete for the Lady Cats at state.
“This group of girls runs well,
they race well and they train well together,” coach Reece said. “They are a
good group and this is just as exciting as the other two times. The competition
was a lot tougher than the previous two times. We had to run our races and we
did. From our third to fifth runners was about an eight point spread. It was
just incredible.”
Along with the team qualifying for state, Moore made some noise of her own as she finished sixth overall in to earn a regional medal in 20 minutes and 8 seconds. Piper freshman Grace Hanson won the individual crown at 19:15 and Eudora’s Riley Hiebert was second with a time of 19:24.
In the team standings, Eudora won
the regional title with 47 points and Baldwin was second with 55.
“It means a lot to go to state
three years in a row with my team,” Louisburg senior Trinity Moore said. “It
shows that our hard work and goals for the season have paid off. It has showed
me that we are capable of anything we set our minds to. Even with new runners
on the team each year, it is so great to work together with these girls and
lead such a great team.
“I feel like I ran very well. It
was the best I had felt while racing this season in terms of weather and how I
felt because of my training and competition throughout the season. This year’s
race was more competitive compared to year’s past, but I think that is what
made it great.”
Johnson, a sophomore for the Lady
Cats, finished 13th overall in 21 minutes to take second on the
team. Gassman also battled through an injured ankle to take 21st in
21:29.
Brown, a freshman, also had a strong performance as she was the team’s fourth runner and finished 25th in 22:06 and Minster, a sophomore, was fifth on the team in 23:39 and took 30th overall.
Wilkerson (24:10) and Bree Gassman
(24:37) finished 43rd and 46th, respectively.
“I think they ran really well,”
coach Reece said. “I think if they go back and look at their times, they are
close to PR’s, if not better, and I think the boys were too. Trinity ran the
race she needed to run and I think Reese stepped up for us to get second.
Carlee gutted through having a bad ankle and Claire improved on her time and
what an addition to the team she has been. Ruth also stepped up as our fifth
runner, and she was our anchor and she got us there.”
On the boys side, senior Anthony
Davis missed out on a state bid by a few places as he finished 17th
in 18:20 and the Wildcats were fifth as a team with 118 points.
Tonganoxie won the team title with
44 points and Bishop Miege was second with 73. Piper senior Owen Roellchen won
the individual title in 16:57.
Sophomore Ryan Rogers was second
on the Wildcat team with a time of 18:29 and was 20th overall and
fellow sophomore Caden Bradshaw was 22nd in 18:32. Junior Carson
Houchen was 25th in 18:44.
Senior Evan Murphy (19:23),
sophomore Sawyer Richardson (19:29) and junior Cade Holtzen (19:41) finished 35th,
36th and 40th, respectively.
The Louisburg girls will take to
the course one final time at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday as the Lady Cats travel to
Wamego for the state meet as they hope to better their fifth-place finish a
season ago.
Moore, on the other hand, will try for her fourth state medal after finishing fourth in 2018. Johnson will vie for her second medal in as many years after taking sixth last season.
“To medal for the fourth time at
state would be one of the best feelings in my heart,” Moore said. “It would be icing
on the cake for my time as a cross country runner. It would show me that I can
set a goal for myself and accomplish it, even through the toughest challenges.
I never would have thought at the beginning of my freshman year that this could
be a possibility, and to have gained so much in a sport.
“Not only is it my fourth time at
state, but it is my last high school cross country race. I am definitely going
to feel the emotions of it being my last time running there, but I know it will
be a great day.”