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Tonganoxie High runners keep up the pace

By Shawn Linenberger - | Oct 12, 2016

The season might be hitting its home stretch, but for the Tonganoxie High cross country team, it’s another chance to sweep the field.

Tonganoxie’s boys and girls teams both won their respective meets Saturday near Easton at the Pleasant Ridge Invitational.

The THS boys won their meet with 28 points, while the THS girls won with 26. The boys finished ahead of Pleasant Ridge (62), Basehor-Linwood (78), McLouth (105), Perry-Lecompton (120) and Maur Hill (121).

For the THS girls, the victory came by finishing 19 points ahead of Basehor-Linwoo (49). Perry-Lecompton placed third (70), PRHS fourth (106) and Maur Hill fifth (129).

Drew Cook placed second in the boys race after suffering a flat tire of sorts. Cook lost a shoe at one point and ran a majority of the race without the shoe. He finished the race in second with a time of 17 minutes, 49 seconds, which was 12 seconds away from winner Luke Oatney. The PRHS runner had a 17:37 time.

Carter Kietzmann finished third (17:55), Calvin Morgan fifth (18:19), Chandler Hamman sixth (18:38), Jakob Foley 13th (19:23), Dylan Graham 14th (19:31) and Scott Vick (19:33).

The McLouth boys had some strong performances as well, with Braeden Pfau 12th (19:08), Dakota Driskill 18th (19:44) and Justin Shufflebarger 21st (19:59).

In the girls race, Mia Bond once again took home the individual title. Bond finished first in 20:57, with Emily Chambers (21:49) and Sierra Staatz fifth (22:11). Emma Campbell placed seventh (22:16), Alyssa Scott ninth (23:01) and Mathia Slinkard 11th (23:07). Erin Williams finished out Tonganoxie’s placings. She took 17th and completed the race in 23:37.

McLouth’s Ceara Funk finished in 23:05, good for 10th.

Jake Edholm won the JV boys meet (19:51). Josh Bosley took second (20:12), Brendan Rogers fourth (21:10) and Nick French fifth (21:14).f

Hope Creten won the girls JV race in 22:42). Taylor Lynne placed fifth (24:44).

THS John Tollefson continues to see improvement as both THS varsity teams eye a state appearance.

“Coach Smith and I feel both teams are prepared and ready to compete going into league and regionals,” Tollefson said, referring to assistant Jody Smith. “Our times dropped nicely when the hot weather broke, but I’m sure everyone else’s did as well.

“Confidence of the runners is certainly higher than it was at the start of the season. They are focused.”

The Kaw Valley League Meet starts at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Wyandotte County Park, 126th Street and State Avenue. Basehor-Linwood is the host.

“It has been a good season so far with lots of success across both boys and girls teams,” Tollefson said. “They are starting to pack up pretty well.

“Our goal is always to shrink the 1-5 gap to around 1:30 or under. We aren’t quite there yet, but getting closer every week.”