Scott City girls cross country 1st, boys 4th at Regionals

Gypsum, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–Entering Saturday’s regional, Scott City knew it would be a battle to get both of their teams to state. On both the girls and boys side, there were about five or six teams who would be in the mix. In the end, the Lady Beavers qualified their team to state for a second straight year, winning the regional, while the boys were just on the outside of qualifying the team, placing fourth. Despite that, the boys were able to get two runners to state.

Scott City’s girls would end up winning the regional with 67 points, just getting by Clay Center, who had 71 points, and TMP Marian finished third with 93 points, just getting by Norton by one point, who finished in fourth.

Leading the way for Scott City was Clare Hawkins, who came in seventh with a time of 20:47.60. Dulce Ayala finished in 10th with a time of 21:04.31. They also got two more runners in the top 15, as Megan Vance was 12th with a time of 21:06.81 and Piper Wasinger was in 13th, running a time of 21:07.30. Kairae Berry was 30th (22:45.06), Samantha Aguilar was 50th (24:00.36) and Kodi Rogers finished in 61st (24:55.92).

On the boys side, the Beavers fell just short of taking the whole team to state. Southeast of Saline dominated the meet, winning with a score of 49 points, while Norton was second with 81 points and Smoky Valley finished third with 108 points. Scott City had 111 points. Not all was lost though, as they were able to qualify two runners for state. The two state qualifiers were Eric Frances, who finished fifth with a time of 17:24.37, and Jaxson Kough, who placed 11th with a time of 17:33.81. Theron Tucker was 14th, running a 17:50.46, Roberto Apodaca was 29th (18:43.94), Eric Shapland 57th (19:48.58), Erick Castillo was 63rd (20:13.54), and Logan Yeadon 66th (20:24.45).

Scott City will run at the Class 3A State Cross Country meet at Rim Rock Farm on Saturday just outside of Lawrence. The girls will run at 10:35 am and the boys will run at 12:20 pm.