Battling a field of large-school athletes, the Hillsboro boys’ cross-country team finished ninth among 13 squads at the Wichita Southeast Invitational on Saturday.
The Trojans finished with 202 points, well behind the battle for the meet title between the home team, with 85 points, and Kapaun Mount Carmel with 86.
“Against 11 5A and 6A schools, we competed well with a number of runners setting new personal records,” coach Stuart Holmes said.
Senior Cody McMillen continued to be the Trojan pace setter, placing eighth overall in a time of 16 minutes, 57 seconds. Following in 16th place was Nicholas Mueller, who covered the 5-kilometer course at the Cessna Activity Center in 17:37.
Also competing for HHS were Nathan Vogel (51st, 18:24), Brandon McMillen (62nd, 19:03), Matthew Klenda (65th, 19:13), Johnathan Christian (71st, 19:26) and Cody Blackketter (78th, 19:54).
“It was great to have Brandon McMillen back, who missed our last meet with illness,” Holmes said. “Brandon was our fourth varsity runner, which helped a lot as we have been looking for some improvement in that position. He was abuot 40 seconds behind Nathan.
“Matthew Klenda, who ran fifth, was only about 10 seconds behind Brandon and Johnny was a little over 10 seconds behind Matthew, so he’s getting there also.
“We expect all runner to improve throughout the season, but certainly one key for us as we focus toward league, regionals and hopefully state is the continued improvement of these three guys.”
Meanwhile, three girls finished the 4-K course for the Trojans, who did not have enough runners to compete as a team.
Heidi Schroeder led the way, placing 44th in 18:09. Abi Humber and Clara Ens followed in order (56th, 57th) in 19:06 and 19:07, respectively.
In the boys’ junior-varsity race, Jonathan King placed 36th in 20:24 to pace HHS. Also competing were Alex Jost (56th, 21:11), Tyrel Blecha (62nd, 21:22), Nick Carlson (73rd, 21:46) and Michael Christian (87th, 22:33).
Coming—Hillsboro was scheduled to compete at Southeast of Saline on Tuesday. The Trojans’ next race will be Thursday, Sept. 27, when they run at the Berean Inivitational at Harvery County Park East. Races begin at 4 p.m.
