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Westhoff, Brooks take seconds in home meet
Cross-country runners don't mind a cool, cloudy day and that probably contributed to some blazing fast times at the Fort Scott Invitational Thursday on the Mercy Professional Building Grounds.
Case in point, the top two times in the girls' varsity race were much faster than the winning time last year. And the winning time in the boys' junior varsity race was nearly a full minute and a half better than that of the runner-up.
Fort Scott had a good day as Tiger runners took second in both the boys' and girls' varsity races and the girls' junior varsity won the team title with three top-10 individual finishers.
Northeast's Kaylee Bogina, daughter of Fort Scott head coach Tracey Bogina, won the girls varsity four-kilometer-long race with a time of 14 minutes, 51.91 seconds. Fort Scott's Cassidy Westhoff, the Tigers' only runner in this race, was second in 15:21.60. They were the only runners who ran the course in less than 17 minutes.
Last year's winning time was turned in by Fort Scott's Katren Rienbolt, then a senior, which was 16:14.15. Bogina finished third last year but her time this year was over three minutes better.
Westhoff was keeping up with Bogina for the most part until they got to the switchbacks on the northeast part of the course. Those can get in a runner's head as the up-and-down, north-to-south switchbacks can sometimes make a runner feel they're not making any progress.
Frontenac's Taylor Jameson led the Raiders to the team title with her third-place time of 17:01.87. The Raiders finished with 28 points --low team score wins in cross country -- as they had the first, third, fourth, ninth and 11th best times eligible for a team score.
Frontenac was team champ for the third consecutive year. Iola was second with 47 points and Labette County rounded out the list of those eligible for team scoring with 52 points. A team must field at least five runners to be eligible for team scoring.
Kohl Endicott of Iola won the five-kilometer boys' varsity race in 17:37.66, which also led his team to the team title with a "perfect" score of 15 points. A team with that score finished with the five best times eligible for team scoring. Prairie View was a distant second with 75 points while Frontenac finished third with 77, Neodesha fourth with 92 and Labette County fifth with 102.
Fort Scott had four runners entered in the varsity boys' race, one short of eligibility for team points. Devin Brooks led the Tigers with a second-place finish of 18:14.81 while Braden Plumlee of Iola was third in 18:25.64.
Addisohn Jones finished eighth for the Tigers in 19:26.05 with Garrett Tatro 10th in 19:32.82 and Zach Ballou 18th in 20:34.37.
Uniontown's Jonathan Wheeler took 21st place with a time of 20:50.57. He was the only Eagle entered in any of the races.
Mallory Westhoff's third-place time of 18:22.08 over 4K in the girls' JV race helped Fort Scott win the team title with 26 points. Clare Gorman was sixth in 19:51.09 and Paxsten Eads was 10th in 21:34.67. Kyle Bruner was 12th in 21:54.58 and Kaylee Coombs was 15th in 22:10.06. Rounding out Tiger results is Olivia Houston's 27:23.85, which put her 29th.
Frontenac was second in team standings with 39 points even though the Raiders' best runner finished higher. Sam Nighswonger took second place in 18:15.42. Prairie View was the last eligible team with 55 points.
Hannah Tingler of Jayhawk-Linn won the race in 18:04.82, making up a lot of ground in the final 1,000 meters.
Two Tigers competed in the boys' JV race. Ben Morris finished 11th in 17:19.60 over 4K and Dalton Carpenter was 43rd in 21:21.91.
Aaron Yarnell of Erie dominated that race, turning in a time of 15:00.62. The runner-up, Bryce Kimmel of Coffeyville, came across the line one minute, 27.12 seconds later (16:27.74). Third place went to Devin Hebb of Howard-West Elk in 16:37.43.
Both Fort Scott and Uniontown will participate in the Parsons Invitational next Thursday. The event begins at 4 p.m. at Big Hill Lake, which is just east of Cherryvale.