Louisburg girls win Perry Invitational, Wildcats medal nine overall

Louisburg’s Lola Edwards (left) and Maddy Rhamy both finished in the top 10 on Thursday at the Perry-Lecompton Invitational and helped the Lady Cats to a first place finish.

TOPEKA — The Louisburg girls cross country team has seen improvement throughout the 2022 season, but the Lady Cats put it all together Thursday at the Perry-Lecompton Invitational. 

The Lady Cats won the team title as they edged out Bishop Miege and Tonganoxie for the team crown with 56 points and finished four points in front of Bishop Miege and six points ahead of Tonganoxie.

“With both Tonganoxie and Bishop Miege at the meet, it was nice to finish first and show ourselves that we can better them as they will be at our regional,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “The girls continue to improve and I feel we now have our top seven runners as we move towards the postseason.”

Six of the seven Lady Cat runners earned medals and they were once again led by Emma Vohs. The Louisburg junior finished runner-up with a season-best time of 20 minutes and 18 seconds.

Juniors Lola Edwards and Maddy Rhamy also earned top 10 finishes. Edwards was sixth in 21:22, while Rhamy finished ninth in 21:39.

“Emma continues to race well and her time is showing it,” Reece said.” The course was awesome and the weather was great for fast times by all. Lola and Maddy continue to work well together and will benefit from this as the season progresses.”

Senior Nova Ptacek also earned a medal as she finished 18th in 23:06 and another senior, Bree Gassman, medaled 21st in 23:20. 

Sophomore Madison Huggins also garnered a medal in 30th in 24:23. Junior Erin Apple just missed the medals by one spot as she took 31st in 24:34.

On the boys side, the Wildcats earned three individual medals on their way to a fifth place team finish with 122 points as they were again without their top runner, Jerynce Brings Plenty.

Senior Leo Martin led the Wildcats in 11th overall in 18:12 and junior Noah Cotter medaled 13th in 18:21. Senior Ethan Ptacek also garnered a medal as he was 24th in 19:12.

Senior Landon Henry (20:12) and sophomore Ben Proctor (20:30) finished 36th and 43rd, respectively.

“The boys team continues to improve as a whole,” Reece said. “They are practicing great and are being rewarded for their efforts. We hope to have Jerynce back for league but will wait and see. 

The meet, which was run at Hummer Park in Topeka, provided the runners with an opportunity to improve their times.

“The course at Hummer Park is full of curves and sometimes isolated as it winds through tall grass and trees,” Reece said. “There are a few hills, but no real challenges per se, so it was a fast course.”

Louisburg will take part in its final meet of the regular season as it hosts the Louisburg Invitational this Thursday at Lewis-Young Park. Races are set to begin at 4 p.m.