Despite being down several runners for multiple reasons - illness, injury, out of town, and short a few KSHSAA mandated practices - we ran very well at our first meet. I have a very young team as well as many runners that are new to XC. With the exception of Sam and Isaac, everyone that was able to run was running a new race distance, so we had PRs almost across the board. In the 5k races, Lee Loughridge, Mariana Boese, Dayana Gonzalez, and Fernanda Rodriguez all ran around the 30-minute mark, and Ximena Rodriguez ran a very determined race. The ladies' finishes should be an excellent starting point to work from and see where we can get to this season. I expect Yamyle Ramirez, Geraldine Vargas, and Jocelyn (Jojo) Vargas to be well under the 30-minute mark when they join us next week. On the boy's side, times ranged from 19:50 up to 26:12, and we brought home hardware! Francisco (Paco) Espinoza-2nd, Anthony Ventura-4th, Isaac Fall-6th, and Jose Recendiz-8th place. Juan Enriquez, Gilberto Silva, and Sam Steele also ran solid races. I expect Cain Villasenor to be at the front of our pack when he joins us next week. Again, this is a fantastic starting place for the season. The LHS runners go to Hesston on Thursday to compete in a very large meet!
On the middle school side, we also had similar results. Allison Solis was my sole female runner for the middle school, and I think she was a little surprised at the difference between the mile and two-mile races, but she has a great starting place for the season, and her time will come down. I'm excited to see what Greta Showalter, Kaitlyn Moore, and Rayna Reyes will be able to do when they join her next week. Angel Landeros, Dale Loughridge, Edgard Zuniga, and Kolby Peter also ran excellent 2-mile races, and have good initial times to improve on. Derek Valerio. Matthew Thurman, and Jon Steele all put forth great efforts in the 7th-grade mile race, improving between 30 seconds and 2 minutes on their mile time from the beginning of practice 2 weeks ago. Noah Geeves should also be a welcome addition when he joins us next week. The LMS runners travel to Pratt-Skyline on Saturday for their next competition.
"What I saw Thursday afternoon both confirmed and added to my level of excitement," said Coach Reazin