Emily Sechrist placed third individually and Josh Richert led the Hillsboro boys? team to a fifth-place finish Thursday at the wind-blown Sterling Invita?tional.
Sechrist finished the 4-kilometer course in 16 minutes, 3 seconds to trail winner Cheyenne Becker of Pratt by 20 seconds and Heather Ruder of Thomas More Prep by 12 seconds.
Karen Leihy placed 13th in 17:34 and Samantha Ens was 44th among 50 runners in 20:31.
Richert, meanwhile, placed ahead of teammate Bret Mueller for the first time this season, completing the 5-k course in 18:04, which was 1:01 behind the race winner, Tyler Roberts of Sterling. Mueller finished 16th among 74 runners in 18:25.
?Josh has been training especially well the past few weeks and really persevered in the middle part of the race, continued to run smart and used his speed toward the end for a strong race,? coach Stuart Holmes said.
Also competing for the Tro?jans were Avery Franz (45th, 20:06), Jordan Bezdek (46th, 20:08) and J.D. Schmidt (50th, 20:18).
Ellinwood won the boys? team title with 57 points, followed by Ster?ling 85, Pratt 93, Larned 110, Hillsboro 141, Hutch Trinity 141, Marion 152, TMP 179, Lyons 191 and Pretty Prairie 205.
In junior-varsity races, Amy Bartel placed seventh (20:48) and Erin Wiebe eighth (21:03) among 18 runners, while in the boys? race Daniel Gray was third (20:34) and Tyler Funk was 15th (22:25) among 31 runners.
Dylan Hill placed third in the ninth-grade race (20:09) among 27 runners.
?The kids should feel good about the effort they gave on an extremely windy day,? Holmes said. ?It was a tough day to run, but our athletes competed hard. We knew the times would be slower due to the conditions, but the team had one of its better days medal-wise with eight runners earning a medal.?
Coming?Hillsboro will compete Thursday in the Central Kansas League meet at Hal?stead, which is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start.
