Rienbolt going to second State Meet

Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Fort Scott's Katren Rienbolt (No. 1095) leads the pack during the Anderson County Class 4A Regional Cross-Country Meet at Garnett Saturday afternoon. Rienbolt went on to win the race by nearly a minute and qualify for the State Meet for the second consecutive year. The State Meet will be held in Wamego Saturday morning. (Submitted photo)

GARNETT -- Fort Scott High School junior Katren Rienbolt earned her second straight State Meet berth in winning the girls' race at the Anderson County Class 4A Regional Cross-Country Meet here Saturday.

Rienbolt, who didn't take up the sport until last year, finished nearly a minute ahead of the runner-up on the four-kilometer course, turning in a time of 15 minutes, 32.43 seconds. Kaitlyn Barnes, a senior from Baldwin, was second in 16: 29.68. Frontenac sophomore Taylor Jameson was third in 16:29.96.

Freshman Grace Willis took part in the Regional race as well, turning in a time of 20:16.90 in her first varsity competition. Freshman Garrett Tatro ran in the boys' race, which was also his first varsity outing, and finished the 5K course in 21:46.84.

Paola was the girls' team champion followed by Baldwin and Anderson County. Those three schools qualified all of their runners to next week's Class 4A State Meet in Wamego. Rienbolt qualified as one of the best runners from a non-qualifying school along with Barnes, Jameson, Girard's Christian Provence, Chanute's Maddison Dispensa, and Pittsburg's Sarah Jewett.

Baldwin won the boys' team title followed by Ottawa and Iola. Those three teams also qualified every runner. Baldwin had three of the top nine runners with Ethan Hartzell winning in 17:12 followed by Iola's Tyler Powelson in 18:08 and Baldwin's Joe Pierce in 18:12.

Qualifying at large were Eudora's Jon Miller, Chanute's Chandler Summers, Spring Hill's Michael Gallagher and Pittsburg's Hank Cloninger.

Other Southeast Kansas League schools were sent to the Bishop Carroll Regional in Wichita. Labette County's Michaela Ozier and Parsons' Kaylee Krull were the league's only female qualifiers. Ozier was fifth in 15:55 and Krull eighth in 16:10.

Labette County's boys were third and qualified the entire team. David Green finished 10th in 17:27 but the SEK did not have any male at-large qualifiers.