Girls just want to have fun
Perry ? After Thursday’s Kaw Valley League meet at Perry Lake, Christy Weller began to look more like herself again on the cross country course.
A few weeks ago, the senior felt drained. Weller was exhausted during meets and had no idea why. She’s been Tonganoxie’s No. 1 runner since her freshman year. Something wasn’t right.
Weller visited a doctor and found out for herself — blood tests revealed she had a previous case of mononucleosis. She’s been feeling the lingering effects. Weller actually competed in two meets when she felt the effects. She didn’t medal in either.
With time, though, Weller has felt better. She had her best outing in a month on Thursday when she finished in ninth place individually in the KVL meet with a time of 17 minutes, 11 seconds.
The Tonganoxie girls finished in third place at Thursday’s league meet.
“I’ve been sleeping a lot,” Weller said. “I didn’t go to school last Wednesday. I just slept all day. Over the weekend, I took it easy. Then, I felt a lot better and more energized all week in practice.”
It showed on Thursday. Weller was side-by-side with THS freshman Alex Hauk, who’s been Tonganoxie’s No. 1 runner with Weller sick. Hauk broke away at the end and finished one place ahead of Weller, in eighth place with a time of 17:05.
Weller and Hauk ran together for the majority of the race. After the race, it was difficult to notice a three-year age difference between the senior and the freshman.
“We were singing and talking,” Weller said of when she ran with Hauk. “We were singing stuff from the Lion King because of the layout of the course. We were thinking there needed to be some lions over there and it’d be complete.”
The consensus from THS runners was the Perry course was one of the flatter ones they’ve ran all season.
Sophomore Andie Jeannin finished the same time Weller did at 17:11.
The Chieftains claimed eighth, ninth and 10th place individually. And Weller isn’t even back to 100 percent. With a completely healthy Weller, plus Hauk and Jeannin continuing to run at a Top 10 level, THS coach Phil Williams is hoping to scare some teams at the Oct. 20 regional meet in Ottawa.
“Christy has really come back and that will help her mentally and physically for next week,” Williams said. “(Before Thursday), she would just get exhausted. She had been to all the practices and everything. But she’d get in a race and just couldn’t keep up.”
For precautionary measures, Williams held Weller out of the Oct. 4 Cat Classic at Mill Valley.
Since they finished in the Top 10, Hauk, Weller and Jeannin were named to the first-team all-KVL team following the meet.
Addy Phelps added to Tonganoxie’s depth Thursday by recording her best 4K time of the year. The junior finished in 19th place with a time of 18:09.
Freshman Kelsey Wagner placed 21st with a time of 18:22, senior Kaitlyn Saathoff finished in 30th place with a time of 18:46, and junior Lauren Himpel placed 31st with a time of 18:53.