Northern Heights beats
field at league meet
The Emporia Gazette
The Northern Heights girls´ cross country team was crowned Mid East League champion, while Heights Justin Johnson won the boys´ race to take the league title.
The girls placed all seven runners in the top 15, earning all of them all-league honors.
Amy VanGundy paced the Wildcats, finishing third in the two-mile race with a time of 12 minutes, 43 seconds, nearly one minute behind league winner Erin Mortimer of Riley County.
Placing fourth in 13:06 was the Wildcats Kari Robidou, while teammates Ashley Johnson was fifth in 13:08, Morgan Howard was eighth in 13:47, Brenda Pracht was 10th with a time of 13:52, Megan Hedberg clocked a time of 13:52 for a 13th place finish and Sara Lockyear came in 15th in 14:04.
The boys team, ranked No. 1 in the state, fell short of the league title, falling to No. 2 ranked Riley County.
Heights scored 39 team points, while Riley County had 36 points.
Johnson, however, won the league title with a time of 16:33 in the 5K run. He won the race by 50 seconds over the runner up.
Also placing for the Wildcats was Ryan Marcotte, who finished fourth in 17:39; Garett Frank, who was fifth in 17:43; Caleb Clock, who ran a time of 18:17 for an 11th place finish; Randy Redelfs was 20th with a time of 19:14; Jared Blaufess, who finished 23rd in 19:40; and Jared Commerford, who ran a time of 19:51 for 25th place.
In the girls´ junior varsity race, Northern Heights runners grabbed the top two spots, as Chelsea Blaufuss was first with a time of 15:09 and Amy Jackson clocked a 15:13 for second.
Sierra Torrens was fifth with a 16:21.
On the boys´s side, Travis Shafer was sixth with a 20:23, Jordan Parks was ninth in 21:48, Brian Jones was 10th in 22:35 and Greg Beck finished in 23:42 for 14th place.
Northern Heights will next compete at it regional meet on Oct. 21 at Richmond Central Heights High School.
