Four Wildcat runners earn All-Frontier League honors

Senior Carson Houchen (right) earned second team all-league honors Thursday during the Frontier League Invitational in Ottawa. His teammates Cade Holtzen (left) and Ryan Rogers earned honorable mention honors. Freshman Lola Edwards led the girls with a first-team all-league selection.

OTTAWA – The Louisburg cross country team competed on one of the toughest courses on its schedule last Thursday, along with running alongside its most difficult competition to date.

The Wildcats competed in the Frontier League Invitational at the Eisenhower Road Course in Ottawa and went up against many state ranked teams and returning state medalists. When it was all said and done, four Louisburg runners left the meet with all-league honors.

Freshman Lola Edwards finished fifth overall in the girls race as she ran a time of 21 minutes and 7 seconds to earn a spot on the all-league first team.

Three Louisburg boys also garnered all-league honors. Senior Carson Houchen took 12^th in 19:12, which cemented him a spot on the second team. Junior Ryan Rogers, who finished 16^th in 19:23, and senior Cade Holtzen, who took 20^th in 19:47, were named honorable mention.

“Lola had a great race and moved through the field as the race played out,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “She has improved her racing this year for sure. Then having three runners receive league honors for the boys was awesome. They have put in the time and they are being rewarded for it.”

The Louisburg boys took fourth in the team standings with 95 points and Eudora won the league title with 49. Tonganoxie’s Eli Gilmore won the individual league crown in 17:25.

Wildcat junior Caden Bradshaw just missed out on all-league honors as he took 23^rd overall in 19:55 and fellow junior Hayden Ross was 25^th in 20 minutes flat. Sophomore Trent Allen took 33^rd in 20:25 and junior Sawyer Richardson was 39^th in 20:37 to round out the top seven Louisburg runners.

The Lady Cats, who were without one of their top runners in Reese Johnson due to an injury, took fifth in the team standings with 143 points. Eudora won the league team title with 50 points, just five points ahead of Baldwin.

Piper’s Grace Hanson won the individual girls crown with a time of 20:12.

Louisburg freshman Maddy Rhamy just missed out on all-league honors herself as she took 24^th overall in 23:10 and sophomore Claire Brown was 38^th in 23:48. Sophomore Bree Gassman took 44^th in 24:18 and freshman Erin Apple took 49^th in 24:36.

Sophomore Nova Ptacek crossed the finish in 53^rd in 25:02 and senior Alexis French rounded out the Lady Cat lineup in 56th in 25:30.

Along with the competition, both Wildcats teams went up against a difficult Eisenhower Road Course that features numerous steep hills on the 3-plus mile terrain.

“I thought both teams ran well at Ottawa,” Reece said. “They worked hard on a tough course and some of the first timers said they could have run it differently and faster. Frontier League is a tough league and we basically repeat this meet for regionals minus Spring Hill, Bonner Springs and Piper.”

Louisburg will try for a trip to state this Saturday when the Wildcats compete at the Class 4A regional meet at the Baldwin Golf Course. The top 3 teams, along with the top five individuals who are not among the state qualifying teams, will advance to the Class 4A state meet next week in Wamego.

The girls race is scheduled for 10 a.m. and the boys will follow.

“Regionals is going to be a tough meet,” Reece said. “We set a goal to qualify both teams and they are going to do all they can to accomplish their goals. Reese (Johnson) will be running as her ankle has improved over the past two weeks. It is going to be an exciting finish.”