Marion narrowly defends crown
Staff writers
Marion took first place for a second consecutive year at a cross-country meet Thursday in Herington.
Gavin Wasmuth placed second with a season-best time of 16:42.67. Luke Wessel was third. Eli Klenda fourth, Harrison Beery 12th, Owen White 14th, Zayden Janzen 15th, and Keenan Lange 28th.
“They are getting pushed each week to close the gap, and today we did just that,” coach Jason Hett said. “We ended up tying with Hoisington, and had to go to our sixth placed runner, which was Zayden, and he broke the tie in our favor with his great run today.”
Thursday will be Marion’s only home meet. Start time will be at 3:30 p.m. Hillsboro, Centre, and Goessel also will participate.
Hillsboro
Hillsboro’s girls took first place Thursday at Herington. Of 15 girls competing, seven were from Hillsboro.
Quinlyn Funk finished third, Riley Richert fourth, Jaidyn Frantz ninth, and Nora Hein, Mariah LePlante, Trudy Hein, and Grace Hein12 through 15.
Hillsboro had three boys in the 5,000-meter run, Ben Werner, Casen Steinert, and Gavin Bennett finished 31st, 33rd, and 34th.
Centre
Kaitlynn Bina ran for Centre at Herington and finished sixth with a time of 22:46.90.Michael Herrera finished in 32nd place on the boys side with a time of 24:29:79.
Goessel
All four Goessel runners finished in the top half of 51 competitors in the boys’ race.
Javin Schmidt led the Bluebirds with a season-best 18:20.30 for seventh. Eli Gaeddert finished 14th, Levi Olson 17th, and Aidan Impson 23rd.
Only three girls competed for Goessel. Delaney Gibson finished 13th with a time of 25:09.00. Exchange student Kula Finnja improved her time by four minutes, finishing just ahead of teammate Braylyn Hoopes in 26th place..