The Big One @ The 4 Mile Creek Resort (Pt. 1)
Olathe West stays undefeated and St. Thomas Aquinas wins for the 8th straight year, plus Schwartzkoph finishes back on top
First, I want to apologize for not putting a newsletter in your mailboxes last week. It wasn’t Covid but I’m honestly not sure what it was. All I know is that it kicked my butt and got in the way of my plans. Anyway, I hope this kind of makes up for it and successfully fills you all in on all of the craziness that was 2021 State Cross Country.
Wow. A lot of things happened this week that I never saw happening, along with a few things that went exactly as planned. Before we get into the details of the weekend, I want to give you a friendly reminder that just because the Kansas cross country season is over, doesn’t mean that we are done for the high school season. On December 4 we get to watch the second edition of the RunningLane Cross Country Championships in Alabama, along with the Eastbay (previously Foot Locker) National Championships and four regionals starting Thanksgiving weekend and ending on December 11 in San Diego. We’ll have to wait a few weeks for more action, but we’ll find something to fill the void with.
6A Girls @ 4 Mile Creek Resort
If you would have shown me only the top ten runners of the race, and then told me that Olathe North did not win, I most likely would have accused you of lying. When I first pulled up the results, that’s exactly what I thought. The ladies of Olathe North’s top three finished 1-2-4 in the meet, which is ridiculously impressive. As a lot of people could have predicted, Anjali Hocker-Singh won her second consecutive 6A State Cross Country title, and her third state title overall. In a crazy time of 17:45.6, Hocker-Singh won her sixth race of the year and broke eighteen for the fifth time this season. Senior Kaylee Tobaben ran 18:20.3 to take 4th and earn her fifth All-State honors. If you’re saying to yourself “Wait! You forgot about their 2!” Well let me explain.
In my personal opinion, one of the most impressive performances was the runner-up finish from Olathe North sophomore Shea Johnson. Going into regionals last week, Johnson had broken nineteen ONCE in her career, at the Olathe Twilight meet early last month. Last week at the Blue Valley Northwest Regional, Johnson notched a seventeen second personal best of 18:41.78 to place 5th in a loaded region. You’d think it would be hard to improve from that a week later, but Johnson did that AND some. Johnson ran a thirty-second personal best of 18:11.6 to take 2nd in the state meet, improving her finish from a year ago by seven spots. The craziest thing is that Hocker-Singh and and Johnson are both sophomores and are going to have the chance to be training partners for two more years! I don’t know about you, but I am pumped to see what they put together in the Spring.
Like I said earlier, I was fully convinced that Olathe North had handed Olathe West their first loss of the season, but boy was I wrong. Olathe West did exactly what Olathe West does. Their top five which was made up of Bree Newport (18:47.9), Charis Robinson (18:48.2), Kathryn Miller (19:08.7), Paige Baker (19:18.4) and Aubree Blackman (19:47.9) finished 8-9-13-15-18 and within forty-one seconds of one another. I mean come on, that is ridiculous! In a majority of meets around the country, Olathe North wins the race with that front three. Unfortunately for them and the rest of the state, the Owls are a top twenty-five team in the country and are now 8-0 on the year.
In her last hurrah of high school cross country, Paige Mullen of Shawnee Mission Northwest took 3rd in 18:11.6, literally right with Johnson of Olathe North. Grace Meyer of Shawnee Mission East ran 18:24.0, taking 5th and improving her place from last year by two spots. This is her third straight top seven finish in state, dating back to her freshman year. Rounding out the top ten was Blue Valley’s Tori Wingrove who ran 18:29.2, taking 6th, with Madeline Carter of Washburn Rural finishing in 7th in 18:35.2. Cecilia Fisher of Blue Valley Northwest took 10th behind a pair of Owl runners, running 18:48.7 in the process.
Serenity Larson of Dodge City set a six second personal best running 18:51.9 to take 11th. Hannah Gibson from Shawnee Mission South ran 18:56.1 to place 12th in her third state race, adding her fourth state medal to her collection. Khloi Bird of Washburn Rural ran 19:15.5 to take 14th and earn All-State honors for the first time. Manhattan freshman Rebekah Pickering ran another personal best of 19:25.5, taking 16th in her first state meet. Katherine Soule of Blue Valley West finished 17th in 19:27.4, hopefully making sidelined teammate Olivia Bakker proud in the process. Another freshman, Payton Fink of Washburn Rural was the third Junior Blue in the top twenty, taking 19th with a time of 19:35.4. The final All-State finisher was Olathe East’s Gabi Armenta who took 20th while just missing her personal best by two tenths of a second in 19:41.6.
As you know, the team title went to Olathe West (52), with Olathe North (68) finishing 2nd for the second consecutive year, and Blue Valley Northwest (106) taking 3rd for the second consecutive year as well. Washburn Rural (115) was a very close 4th, followed by Manhattan (154) in 5th. Rounding out the twelve teams is Lawrence Free State (158), Shawnee Mission North (198), Shawnee Mission East (203), Shawnee Mission South (210), Derby (244), Dodge City (250) and Garden City (296).
6A Boys @ 4 Mile Creek Resort
At Sunflower League two weeks ago, Wyatt Haughton of Shawnee Mission East took down the fastest boy in Kansas history in Micah Blomker of Shawnee Mission North. Since then, Blomker hasn’t looked back. Last week at the Shawnee Mission Northwest Regional, Blomker ran away from Haughton and the field to win by twenty-six seconds in 15:23.31. It was no different in Augusta, as Blomker won his first state championship after two runner-up finishes and a fourth place finish. Blomker ran 15:25.3 to distance himself from the field by fifteen seconds. Blomker picked up his fifth individual win of the year and his eighth top two finish of the season, along with closing out the KSHSAA season going under sixteen (and fifteen once) in all eight races.
For the junior Haughton, he had a heck of a last couple weeks of the year. He set a personal best of 15:35.00 at Rim Rock at the Sunflower League, followed by a runner-up finish at regionals for his second consecutive sub-sixteen performance. He came within five seconds of his personal best at 4-Mile Creek Resort as he ran 15:40.3 to finish runner-up comfortably. Carter Stewart of Olathe East moved significantly up from his finish last year by taking 3rd in his junior year campaign. Last year in 2020, Stewart finished 20th at the Olathe North Regional, not enough to qualify for state. What a turnaround for him as he earns his first All-State honor.
Rounding out the top five was Garden City junior Devin Chappel in 4th with a 15:56.8, his first time ever going under sixteen. A second behind him was another junior in Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Henry Born in 15:57.1. Finishing 6th-10th was Matthew Tolman (16:00.9) of Olathe South, Samuel Hurley (16:03.0) of Blue Valley Northwest, Olathe West’s Aidan Reyna (16:05.2), Manhattan senior Ben Mosier (16:05.7) and Olathe North’s Josh Caldwell (16:08.9). This was the highest finish at state for all of them and Tolman and Caldwell’s first time earning All-State.
The second half of the state medalists started with Jake Beauchamp (16:10.8) of Wichita Southeast, followed by Ben Shryock (16:11.1) of Lawrence Free State, Alex Holmes (16:13.3) from Washburn Rural, Manhattan’s Max Bowyer (16:14.7), Olathe East’s Luke Jenkins (16:15.9), Tyler Burns (16:19.3) of Olathe South, Kasen Keeler (16:19.8) of Gardner-Edgerton, Shawnee Mission East’s Caden Peters (16:21.7), Jordan Kilonzo (16:23.9) of Gardner-Edgerton and Rhys Allen (16:25.4) from Olathe South.
For the past two years, Olathe South has been oh-so-close to a state title. In 2019 they finished just thirteen points and taking second behind Washburn Rural, and just missing out on third place last year by three points. Things finally fell into place for the Falcons as they won by thirty points to claim their first state title in the program’s history. Led by Tolman who took 6th, South put two more runners in the top twenty with Burns and Allen taking 16th and 20th. Their four and five finished 24th and 28th to help the team score just 70 points. Taking a surprising second was the boys of Manhattan (100), with Olathe East (120) taking third, just a point ahead of Lawrence Free State (121). Gardner-Edgerton (132) and Shawnee Mission East (136) finished in a close 5th and 6th, with Washburn Rural (187) taking 8th. Rounding out the twelve team field was Shawnee Mission South (200), Garden City (212), Dodge City (234), and Haysville Campus (269).
5A Girls @ 4 Mile Creek Resort
When I tell you that the 5A Girls race was CLOSE, I mean it. The 1st place team and the runner-up were separated by only two points, with third place only five points behind. We’ll get back to the team race in a bit. The individual race was just as exciting. Winning her second ever state title (first 5A) of her career was Mill Valley senior Katie Schwartzkoph. Her first state title came at the 6A level way back in her freshman year, where she upset then undefeated and state favorite Jaybe Shufelberger (eventual NXN qualifier weeks later). Schwartzkoph started her career out with a bang, and continued her momentum with runner-up finishes at 6A state her sophomore year and 5A state a year later. On Saturday, Schwartzkoph was able to end her high school cross country season just like she started it, with a state title. Schwartzkoph did so in dominating fashion, winning over Piper junior Grace Hanson, 17:51.80-18:33.30. Speaking of Hanson, she has had an immensely successful yet quiet junior campaign which saw six wins including a Regional and Frontier League title, and a crazy personal best of 18:11.71. Behind Hanson was Schwartzkoph’s successor, Mill Valley freshman Charlotte Caldwell. In her first year of high school competition, Caldwell finished in the top ten four times, including a runner-up finish at the St. James Regional. She also sports a personal best of 18:42.10 that should be a good confidence booster heading into winter training. Taking fourth, in what I believe was her first season of cross country (according to MileSplit) was St. Thomas Aquinas senior Mareike Krebs. Starting out the season with a 19:01.80 debut, she stayed consistent and ended the year with a shiny new personal best of 18:50.90. Rounding out the top five was five-time state champion Hope Jackson of Bishop Carroll. Jackson ran 18:58.00 (season PB) to take fifth in her final state meet on the grass. It may have not been the ending to the year she wanted, but I’m sure she’ll continue to run well in the Spring.
Finishing 6th was Seaman junior Bethany Druse (19:10.40), improving from her 10th place finish a year ago. Behind her was DeSoto junior Sophie Landrum (19:19.20), Izzy Ross (19:25.20), a freshman from Blue Valley Southwest, Maize senior Zoie Ecord (19:19:27.60) and Emporia junior Elizabeth Willhite (19:27.90). The only one to set a personal best among the five was Willhite who shaved off twenty seconds from her personal best set way back in 2019 during her freshman year. This was a repeat All-State honor for the four upperclassmen, and Ross’ first of her young career.
The next ten All-State finishers started with Maize South’s Britton Kelly (19:27.90), Vienna Lahner (19:29.80) of Spring Hill, Landon Forbes (19:30.20) of Bishop Carroll, DeSoto and Mill Valley freshman Brooke Bundt (19:31.60) and Meghan McAfee (19:34.10), Great Bend duo Emilia Diaz (19:38.20) and Marissa Boone (19:39.30), Bishop Carroll’s Brooke Martin (19:40.10), St. James’ freshman Katelyn Menghini (19:41.40) and St. Thomas Aquinas sophomore Sophia Spinello (19:47.00).
Like I mentioned earlier, the team race was ridiculously close. The ladies of Mill Valley won their third state title since 2018, and their first in 5A. (2018 and 2019 were 6A) The Jaguars were aided by a strong 1-3 punch from Schwartzkoph and Caldwell, and a 15th place finish from McAfee. Laura Hickman and Logan Pheister finished 31st and 46th respectively to round out the Mill Valley scoring. Literally right behind the Jaguars was St. Thomas Aquinas and Great Bend. The Saints came just three points away from what would have been their tenth state title since 2004 and first since 2018. The Saints were led by a 4th place finish from Krebs and a 20th, 23rd, 24th, and 27th place finish from Spinello, Quinn Babcock, Alexis Huddin, and Anna DiCarlo. The Saints had a sixty-seven second pack time, but the top heavy finish from Mill Valley was just enough to edge them out. Great Bend surprised the field with a podium finish and a heck of a performance. Mill Valley went into the race ranked 5th in the 5A XC Team Scores and decided that they didn’t care what they were ranked. The Panthers came just eight points away from what would have been their first state title since 2001 and third overall. The key for Great Bend was their pack split of twenty-five seconds. They put all of their runners in the top thirty-three places, led by All-State performances from Diaz (16th) and Boone (17th), followed by Addy Nicholson (21st), Eliana Beckham (25th), Diane Alvarez (30th), and Emma Loomis (33rd). All but two of them set personal bests, and it was a season best for everyone except Alvarez. There is never a better time to run the fastest you ever have than the state meet right? But wait, there’s more! The defending champ Jaguars are set to return their second, third, fourth and seventh runners, with Aquinas returning their second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh runners, and Great Bend returns everyone but their first and sixth runners. In fact, all of the returning Panthers are either freshman or sophomores. Do not be surprised if in a year these three teams (and maybe more) are battling out this closely again. Finishing 4th was Seaman (114) and Bishop Carroll (127) in 5th. St. James Academy (154) took 6th, followed by Maize South (177), Kapaun Mt. Carmel (182), Emporia (205), Hays (279), Leavenworth (304) and Basehor-Linwood (338) rounded out the rest of the field.
5A Boys @ 4 Mile Creek Resort
For what I think was the first time in a while, there was a moment of uncertainty during the season if St. Thomas Aquinas was going to lose their streak. Update: They did not. Since 2014, Aquinas has been the king of 5A. It was more of the same as the Saints won their eighth consecutive 5A state title. Logan Seger added a second state title (first XC) to his résumé on Saturday, running 15:39.20 in the process. It was Seger’s third straight post-season win and his fourth win of the year. Taking second was Seger’s teammate Ashton Higgerson in 15:51.10. The Seger-Higgerson 1-2 punch was the first first and second finish since Will Cole and Alex Gill did it in 2016. This was both their highest finish at state in their career, but their third top ten finish for each. Seger finished 9th in 2020 and 4th a year ago, and Higgerson took 7th the past two years. Along with another team title, Seger was the fourth Saint to claim the individual title during the streak, but the fifth time is has happened. (Ethan Marshall 2017 and 2018). The third Saint in the top five was junior Colby King who took 5th overall in his first ever state cross country meet. King had a BREAKOUT junior year, one that made Aquinas even more dangerous. Coming into the year, King’s personal best was 18:26.60, but after a breakout track season this should have been expected. King completely skipped the 17’s, running a 16:14.70 in his 2021 debut. He’d go on to break fifteen four times while notching a personal best of 15:32.40. From the looks of it, King is the lead man in what is going to be Aquinas’ ninth straight state title, and I think he is more than capable.
If you’re wondering, yes there were other runners in the race, and I’ll get to them now. Great Bend junior Kaiden Esfeld (15:54.70) picked up his fourth All-State honor as he took 3rd on Saturday while breaking sixteen for the first time this season and second time in his career. It was Esfeld’s second third place finish on the year, while he won the seven other races he ran. So I guess you could say he ran pretty well this year. After finishing runner-up a year ago, Carson McEachern (16:00.00) took 4th to end his high school cross country career towards the top. McEachern didn’t race this season until October 9th, but it seems it doesn’t take him long to return to form, as he ran his third fastest time of his life in his fourth race back. St. James Academy senior Eli Moore (16:03.20) turned in his third All-State finish, improving his performance a year ago when he finished 8th. Behind Moore was Micah Paschke (16:13.50) ,the junior from Blue Valley Southwest, with Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Luke Brock (16:18.90) and St. James’ Terry Irvine (16:19.80) finishing 8th and 9th. Lansing’s Kenneth Howell took 10th in 16:23.60.
Cole Waymire (16:23.70) of Bishop Carroll led the way for the rest of the medalists, followed by AJ Vega (16:25.20) of Mill Valley, Jackson Esquibel (16:27.40) of Shawnee Heights, Andrew Hartegan (16:28.70), Kyle Newberry (16:29.00) of DeSoto, Blue Valley Southwest’s Drew Dombrosky (16:29.40) , Mill Valley senior Chase Schieber (16:30.50), another Blue Valley Southwest medalist Thomas Caul (16:32.20), Salina Central’s William Griffith (16:34.00) and Kory Sutton (16:38.90) from Shawnee Heights.
As you know, the team title went to St. Thomas Aquinas, but probably a little too close for comfort. Aquinas went 1-2-5 for their first three runners, while Frank Curran and Charlie Heap took 26th and 44th. Despite Blue Valley Southwest not having the top heavy dominance of Aquinas, their pack is what gave them a chance and the runner-up finish. Southwest had three medalists in Paschke, Dombrosky and Caul, with Gabe McGee and Crew Buehler finishing 24th and 27th to round out the scoring. Aquinas won over Southwest 55-69, while Bishop Carroll (91) took third in a close battle with St. James Academy (96) who took 4th. Kapaun Mt. Carmel (155) took a comfortable 5th, while Maize (195), Shawnee Heights (195), Lansing (`198) and Maize South (198) battled it out for 6th. Arkansas City (220), Seaman (278) and Newton (296) rounded out the twelve team field finishing 10th, 11th and 12th.