3A Cross Country Regional at Riley County results - click here

Running for the right to compete at State that is what was up for grabs at Riley County on Saturday in the Class 3A cross country Regional action and several area runners and teams performed exceptionally well. 

The Hiawatha Red Hawks highlighted the area performances as the girls and boys brought home Regional titles to qualify for State as teams. The Red Hawk boys won by 14 points over Riley County, while the girls cruised to the Regional title winning by 35 points over St. Mary's. The Sabetha Bluejays are also sending both their girls and boys teams to State as the Bluejays boys took third place by 17 points over the fourth place team and the girls were quite a bit ahead of fourth place nabbing third and finishing only nine points out of second place. 

Leading the way for Hiawatha was a pair of individual Regional titles as Elizabeth Kettler won the girls race with a time of 20:13.35 winning by over one minute and Justin Hodge won the boys competition with a time of 17:07.83. For the Hiawatha the girls the rest of the team notched some top performances a Kate Madsen took third (21:22.01), Mary Rosa placed fifth (21:54.77), Jasmine Morey finished ninth (22:23.70), Emma Williams earned 12th, Nicole Stueve placed 29th and Madison Gilbert 36th. On the boys side of competition the rest of the Red Hawks placed 11th for Parker Winters, 17th for Liam Jones, 18th for Andrew Lierz, 26th for Taylor Hughes and Gabe Corbett in 29th.

Sabetha Bluejays had plenty of great performances to lead them to their pair of third place team performances. In the girls race a time of 21:22.01 earned Hattie Luckert second place at Regionals, while Megan Meyer took sixth place (22:01.19) and Skylar McAfee finished tenth (22:29.65). The rest of the Sabetha girls notched places of 19th, 44th, 47th and 65th for Kenzie Meyer, Madisen Cochran, Ellen Glynn and Karrington Payne, respectively. Leading the Sabetha boys was Henry Glynn who placed 14th on the day, while Kaden Dillon and Micah Romines finished right behind him in 15th and 16th place. Also in action for Sabetha was Braden Menold who placed 31st, Darrin Funk who placed 43rd, Charles Bestwick who earned 48th place and Jesse Burger who finished 74th.

Pleasant Ridge Rams, Luke Oatney and Dayton Flack each registered a Top 10 finish in the boys race to punch their tickets to 3A State competition. Oatney nabbed third place with a time of 17:41.07, while Flack placed ninth behind a time of 18:17.84. 

Royal Valley Panther duo is headed to State as Nue Tinajero posted a time of 18:16.51 to earn him eighth place in the boys action and Katie Hanshaw placed 16th in the girl’s race qualifying with a top time from a non-qualifying team. 

Two Mclouth lady Bulldogs are set to run at State as Baylee Wolf raced to a fourth place finish with a time of 21:40.27 and Ceara Funk finished 18th qualifying for State as a top time from a non-qualifying team. 

Maur Hill-Mount Academy, Perry Lecompton and ACCHS all had a runner also qualify for State after a Top 10 finish at Regionals. For the Maur Hill-Mount Academy Ravens Ayden Black earned fifth place (17:52.49) in the boys race, while Josh Mitts of Perry Lecompton earned seventh (18:13.88) in the boys competition. ACCHS Tiger Victoria Caplinger raced to eighth place in the girl’s race with a time of 22:18.13 to earn a spot at State. 

The Class 3A State meet is set for Saturday, October 28th in Lawrence at Rim Rock.