Brings Plenty, Cotter qualify for state cross country

Louisburg senior Noah Cotter (left) and junior Jerynce Brings Plenty qualified for state Saturday during the Class 4A regional meet in Overland Park.

OVERLAND PARK — Jerynce Brings Plenty and Noah Cotter both had something to prove at the Class 4A regional meet Saturday at Johnson County Community College.

Brings Plenty, who missed this race a year ago due to injury, also had to exit last week’s league race halfway through due to an illness. 

Cotter competed at regionals last season, but missed qualifying for state by just one spot. Those adversities fueled both Wildcat runners.

This time around, they found their way to the state meet.

Brings Plenty and Cotter both qualified as individuals for the Class 4A state meet and will represent Louisburg this Saturday in Wamego. Brings Plenty finished as the regional runner-up and Cotter took eighth overall.

“It was great to see Jerynce and Noah continue their incredible season,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “They both are deserving of their qualification for the state meet. Jerynce ran a solid race and maintained his position through two-thirds of the race. He and the Eudora runner were able to break away from other runners which set him up for his second place finish. Noah put himself in the top ten and stayed there the whole race. After just missing last year, Noah knew what had to be done and executed it to a T. It was an awesome race for the two of them.”

Brings Plenty, who has led Louisburg all season, found himself at the front of the pack the entire race. He ran side by side by Eudora’s Zach Arnold for much of the competition, before Arnold pulled away.

The Louisburg junior took second with one of his better times on the season in 16 minutes and 39 seconds. Arnold was the regional champion in 16:26.

It was a welcome finish for Brings Plenty who had to pull out of the Frontier League meet halfway through with a stomach problem after sitting top three in that race as well.

“I definitely felt really good, especially after I dropped out last week at league,” Brings Plenty said. “I was a little worried with how my gut would do, but I just told myself to come out and have trust in my training and everything I have done all summer. I just wanted to run as hard as I could.”

As for Cotter, he also ran one of his better times on the season in 17:36 to earn the eighth-place finish. Missing out on state a year ago was fresh on his mind.

“This time was really close and I was cutting it pretty close as I was sitting in 10th for a while,” Cotter said. “I knew what I wanted, and I knew why I was running, so I knew that I could do it and it feels really good to be able to accomplish this.”

On the girls side, senior Maddy Rhamy nearly joined Brings Plenty and Cotter on qualifying for state, but missed the cut by one spot. Rhamy finished 16th overall in 21:38.

The top three teams qualify for state along with the top five individuals on non-qualifying teams.

“Maddy left it all on the course and it was heartbreaking to see her just miss qualifying,” Reece said. “She has been a solid leader for the team over the last four years and we thank her for that. Along with Maddy, Lola (Edwards) and Erin (Apple) will be missed as well. We have great seniors this year and what they have done for our program is priceless.”

In the team standings, the Wildcat boys finished fifth overall. Freshman Levi Cotter was third on the team with a time 18:42 to take 22nd overall.

Truman Ellison (19:48) and Spencer Mattison (20:28) were 35th and 42nd, respectively. Ben Proctor ran a 20:48 to take 45th and Zac Musil was 57th in 22:53.

On the girls side, the Wildcats took seventh overall. Senior Lola Edwards was 27th in 23:29, while freshman Talen McMurray was right behind her in 28th at 23:31. 

Junior Rowan Yows was 41st in 24:52 and senior Erin Apple took 46th in 25:47.

“We had strong races from all of our runners and look for them to continue to work hard during the off season and prepare for track in the spring,” Reece said. “We will return a solid group of sophomores and juniors for next year. We were very happy with the freshman runners, who really stepped it up at the end of the season and put themselves out there in a big regional race. Talen, Levi, Zac, Spencer, and Truman, all freshmen, ran well and we look to them to continue to bring it over the next three years.”

Brings Plenty and Cotter will now prepare for their final race of the season this Saturday for the state meet at Wamego Country Club — a course both runners are familiar with. The 4A boys race is set to begin at 10 a.m.

“My goal is to get in that top 10 and see what happens,” Cotter said. “We have already run on the course this year, so that definitely helps knowing what to expect. I am looking forward to it.”

“Honestly, I just want to place as high as I can and just go out and have fun,” Brings Plenty added.