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Rienbolt reigns over girls' varsity division
Fort Scott High School sophomore Katren Rienbolt has run in exactly two cross country races. Last week, in her first race ever at Labette County, she won the junior varsity race by two minutes.
She was placed into the varsity girls' race at the Fort Scott Invitational. She won it by 1 minute.
Rienbolt ran the four-kilometer course behind the former Cigna building in 16 minutes, 43.11 seconds. Michaela Ozier of Labette County was second in 7:43.31.
"We took our time getting her used to cross country," Fort Scott head coach Tracey Bogina said. "She looks comfortable. She's got a knack for this. She's such a hard worker and I think she's going to find this sport to be really good to her."
Rienbolt left little doubt that she was the best on the course. After starting from the farthest left at the starting line, she quickly got in front and claimed the lead after the first turn.
Rienbolt played volleyball in the fall of her freshman year. Although she did run track last season, she had not run distances as long as this before.
Fifteen schools attended the event, the largest turnout for the Fort Scott meet in several years.
"We had some new schools," Bogina said. "It was really nice to see (the turnout) because about five years ago we had only three teams here, I think. I don't think we've ever had 77 runners in a JV boys race. It was a beautiful day and the course was so nice. We couldn't have asked for anything more, really."
Pleasanton's Megan Leavitt finished sixth in the girls' varsity race with a time of 19:21.09. Teammate Savannah Smith placed 15th in 20:09.03 to earn the last medal.
Kelli Wilkinson, a member of Uniontown's first-year team, finished 18th in 20:31.48.
None of the area schools had the minimum five runners required for team standings. Frontenac was the winner with 54 points, fielding the minimum number of runners. Labette County finished second with 56 points, Prairie View third with 55, Fredonia fourth with 71 and Iola fifth with 84.
Senior Robert Sellers finished 13th for the Tigers in the varsity boys race, turning in a time of 19:36.27 over five kilometers.
"It was a very competitive boys varsity race," Bogina said. "I thought he ran well. He's competing hard. I don't think he's in the kind of condition he'll be in by the end of the season. He'll be in better shape by the time league and Regionals come around. There are some kids ahead of him right now that, hopefully, he'll be able to beat by the end of the season."
Teammate Kyle Altic was 30th in 23:30.51 while fighting off an injury. But he was determined to run at his home meet as a senior.
"Kyle was iffy if he was going to get to run," Bogina said. "He really wanted to run his senior year at home. I was proud that it meant that much to him. He ran well for being in a considerable amount of pain because he didn't practice at all this week."
Dakota Henderson place 28th for Uniontown in 22:36.33 with teammate Jonathan Wheeler right behind in 23:20.18. Alex Bradbury placed 33rd in 24:06.67.
Pleasanton did not enter any runners in the boys' varsity race.
Drew Baum of Labette County was the winner in 17:23.39 with Alex Bledsoe of Nevada taking second in 17:53.42.
Labette County won the team title with 23 points. Iola was second with 33 and Fredonia finished third with 72.
Skyler Cruse finished seventh for Fort Scott in the 4K junior varsity boys race in 16:45.58. Zach Willis of Pleasanton was 14th in 17:01.30 with teammate John Epps placing 30th in 18:41.88, Caleb Megulin 38th in 19:03.49, A.J. Snow 54th in 19:57.14 and Brandon Hensley 55th in 20:01.47.
Labette County won the team title with 31 points. The Grizzlies were followed by Iola with 55, Northeast with 110, Frontenac with 113, Prairie View 126 and Pleasanton 135.
Michael Toms of Northeast was the individual champion in 16:17.93.
All three Pleasanton runners earned medals in the 4K girls' JV race. Savannah Reynolds finished seventh in 21:39.11. Jana Pavlikova was ninth in 22:19.15. Ciandra Troth was 10th in 22:31.81.
Fort Scott entered two runners. Rebecca Page was 22nd in 34:19.96 and Ashton Mason was 23rd in 35:25.87.
Frontenac was the only school with a full team and won the team score with 15 points.
Katie Solomon of Oswego was the individual champ with a time of 20:15.80. Frontenac runners took the next three spots.
Uniontown had no entries in either JV race.
Fort Scott and Uniontown will both take part in the Parsons Invitational next Thursday, which is held at Big Hill Lake, which is about 8 1/2 miles west then 5 miles south from Parsons.
Pleasanton is entered in the Drexel, Mo., meet Tuesday.