By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Saturday morning's regional cross country races lived up to the hype. Three of the four races featured current or future record holders. In the end, the Lady Panthers secured another Class 5A regional title to qualify for state, and senior Kaiden Esfeld qualified on the boys' side.
Salina Central sophomore Katelyn Rupe, the top distance runner in the state this year, blistered the field by more than two minutes to set a new course record in 17:24.70. Lady Panther sophomore Marissa Boone finished second in 19:45.38, and junior Addy Nicholson finished third in 19:47.47.
"We knew Katelyn was going to dominant this race, but our goal was to sit behind a Maize South girl," Nicholson said. "We found her, we sat there, and we just passed her. Marissa and I just worked together on our way to the finish line."
Boone and Nicholson have traded places atop the Lady Panther lead all season. Junior Eliana Beckham finished 11th overall Saturday in 20:34.56, and freshman Sienna Smith ran 13th in 21:04.05. Junior Morgan Beckwith picked up the final team points in 21:18.92 for 16th.
"It's really fun," Boone said. "It's also less stressful because you're competing against someone who is also rooting for you, even though you're still racing against each other."
Sophomore Reese King was among the team scorers in the WAC Championships a week earlier. Saturday, she lost a shoe with about 1.5 miles remaining in the race, but still placed 21st in 21:30.99.
"I started really feeling it after a mile running without my shoe," said King. "The last half mile it started hurting really bad because of all the sticks and rocks. It hurt really bad, but I was just like, the faster I get done, the faster I can stop."
Sophomore Kate Welcher ran 38th for the Lady Panthers in 22:47.89.
The Lady Panthers scored 42 points for the team title. Maize South placed second with 55 points, and Hays ran third with 71 points.
Esfeld breaks course record in second-place finish
Esfeld ran a 16:09 to set a new Lake Barton record to open the 2022 cross country season. Saturday morning he ran faster than that but still finished second to Maize junior Kaleb Glazier, who won in 15:47.41. Esfeld picked up the silver in 15:54.76.
"Lashley and I had talked about him," Esfeld said. "We knew he was going to be up there with me. I knew it was going to be a race with me and him, who's going to take it at the end. He kind of got me at the end, on the last probably 200 meters or so."
The Panther boys finished fifth as a team with 131 points, missing state qualification by just 25 places. Maize dominated the field with 24 points, followed by Salina Central with 94 points, and Maize South with 106 points.
Freshman Taevin Stroup neared individual qualification with a 20th-place finish in 18:09.36. Junior Thomas Henrikson placed 28th in 18:24.58, junior Bradon Suppes ran 40th in 19:10.90, and junior Braylon Moore scored the final team points in 41st in 19:14.05. Freshman Brantley Vsetecka placed 55th in 20:16.87.
The Class 5A State Cross Country Championships return to Rim Rock Farm outside Lawrence next Saturday. The Lady Panthers run at 11:10 a.m., and Esfeld and the 5A boys close out the season at 12:55 p.m.
Miller qualifies for Ellinwood in 2A race
Ellinwood senior Asher Miller finished ninth in his race with a time of 17:59.94 to head back to state. Reigning 2A state champion Kamryn Golub of Stanton County won the race by 25 seconds in 16:42. Two-time reigning 1A champion Meade won the team title with 45 points. Stanton County, winner of two of the last three 2A titles, finished third with 65 points.
Stanton County senior Chesney Peterson entered the day with the course record of 18:44. The University of Tennessee-commit watched as Rupe torched the record to open the day with the win in 17:24. Peterson won her race by nearly two minutes in 17:43. Peterson's last loss came as a freshman when she suffered a medical issue in the state championship race and was defeated by Ellinwood's Erin Hammeke.