The Cross Country season is almost here and we got you covered with league information regarding the TVL, Big 7, and NEKL. 

Twin Valley League

The league champs last season were the Doniphan West girls and Axtell boys. The D-West girls have been a powerhouse in recent years in cross country and they will look to continue that trend in 2023. 

They won back-to-back state titles in 2019 and 2020 and posted a 2nd place finish in Class 1A in 2021 before finishing ninth at state last season. 

The Axtell boys are coming off a fourth place finish at 1A state last season and will look to be even better in 2023. The Eagles are also coming off a Class 1A state track title this past spring in Wichita. 

The Frankfort and Centralia girls finished second and third at the league meet last season while Frankfort finished 11th at the state meet. 

The Washington County and Onaga boys finished behind Axtell at the league meet last season with the Tigers going on to finish eighth place at the state meet. 

Big 7 

Last season it was the Hiawatha boys and Nemaha Central girls claiming league titles. The Hiawatha boys carried the momentum into the Class 3A state meet with a third place finish behind only Wichita Trinity and Southeast of Saline. 

Nemaha Central should compete towards the top of the league as they had the individual champ last season in John Langill who's set to return for his senior season. 

Sabetha had two top five finishes at the league meet with Charlie Lukert and Kalvin Evans. Charlie is going to be a sophomore while Kalvin is entering his senior season. 

There were only two boys who were seniors last season who finished in the top 10 at the league meet so most of the top runners are set to return in 2023. 

The Thunder girls won their first league title since 1987 and had three runners finish inside the top five. One of those runners was Madilyn Mosteller who ended up finishing 13th at the Class 3A state meet. Hailey Nordhus was another top five finisher last year the league meet and enters her senior season. 

Sabetha had two top 10 finishes at the league meet with Laura Metzger finishing third and Jyllian Stapleton who finished in eighth. Laura is entering her junior season while Jyllian is a sophomore. 

There were only five seniors inside the top 20 in last year's league meet on the girls side so most of the top runners are set to return in 2023. 

Northeast Kansas League 

Last season it was the Oskaloosa girls and Jefferson County North boys who took home NEKL titles. 

Oskaloosa put together an incredible performance at the league meet posting the top four placers including the champion Emma Vogel. The Bears would go on to finish 11th place at the Class 2A state meet. 

Valley Falls also had a participant at the state meet last season in Amelia Brown after she finished fifth at the league meet. 

The JCN boys would finish 8th place at the state meet out of 12 teams and they also had a good showing at state track this past spring. Pleasant Ridge and McLouth also had runners competing at the state meet last season. 

Haeden Forbes of ACCHS was the boys individual league champ and it was the first time since 2009 that a runner from ACCHS won the individual league title.