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Tiger boys qualify for State as a team
OTTAWA — Each of the seven members of Fort Scott High’s boys’ cross-country team will participate in this weekend’s Class 4A State Championship Meet at Wamego as a result of their third-place team finish at the Ottawa Class 4A Regional here Saturday.
Fort Scott’s Gabriella Clements and Macayla McClure will advance on the girls’ side as they were two of the five best runners from a team that did not finish in the top three places.
Tiger boys scored 84 points, two ahead of Anderson County, to gain the third team berth from the Regional. Iola was the champion with 49 points and El Dorado, which had the top two individuals, was second with 51.
Junior Connor Mason was Fort Scott’s top finisher with a time of 18:55.98 that resulted in a 10th-place finish. Junior Nicholas King was 11th in a time of 19:07.04. Freshman Dryden Cosens finished 17th in 19:47.52 followed by frosh Trenton Peck, 22nd in 20:15.23, junior Drake LaRoche, 24th in 20:28.76, junior Connor Parker, 35th in 21:05.33, and sophomore Connor Gorman, 39th in 21:53.
Senior Ezekiel Kemboi of El Dorado was the Regional champion in 17:26.45 followed by teammate Christian Price in 17:51.97.
Fort Scott’s girls finished fifth as a team with 98 points, 14 points behind third-place Paola. Defending Class 4A State champion Baldwin won the team title with 40 points and Louisburg was second with 75.
Clements finished in fourth place in 22:17.32, and was the best of the five runners who advanced at-large. McClure was sixth in 22:37.38, third among the at-large qualifiers as Iola’s Elka Billings was fifth in 22:37.18.
The State Meet takes place at the Wamego Country Club Saturday morning. Class 4A boys will be in the third race at 11:10 while 4A girls will run the final of the day’s six races at 12:55 p.m.
There will be a send-off for the cross country team at 12:15 p.m. Friday on the north side of FSHS.