 |
Phyllis Richert photoNathan Vogel shows the form that earned him a berth in the state meet this Saturday. Vogel finished ninth in the boy?s race. |
The Hillsboro cross-country boys? team fell just short of qualifying for state, but the Trojans did qualify one runner as an individual at the Class 3A regional meet Saturday at Southeast of Saline.
Nathan Vogel qualified for next Saturday?s state meet in Wamego by placing ninth in a field of 89 runners. Vogel covered the 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 52 seconds, trailing the No. 1 runner by 50 seconds.
?Nathan ran a determined, gutsy race, and it was great to see him earn the right to compete at state,? coach Stuart Holmes said. ?His dedication and work ethic have been great examples for our younger runners.?
Meanwhile, the Trojan team compiled 112 points to place fourth?one place and nine points short of the top-three cutoff for team qualification. Minneapolis won with 92 points, followed by Lyons (101) and Wichita Independent (103). Fourteen teams were competing.
?All the guys gave a great effort and ran well,? Holmes said of his squad. ?Unfortunately, our regional had so many strong teams that we knew some really good teams would not qualify, and today that was us.
?There is no doubt we would have qualified in any of the other three regionals in 3A, but that is the way the system works.?
Crossing the finish line after Vogel were Bret Mueller (16th, 18:38), Jonathan King (19th, 18:48), Josh Richert (33rd, 19:23), Dimitri McClelland (35th, 19:28), Justin King (39th, 19:44) and Michael Christian (61st, 20:36).
?The guys should feel good about their effort and improvement this season. Even though two of our top five have never run cross-country before, they still almost qualified from a regional that probably had five of the top 10 teams in the state in 3A.?
Samantha Ens, the Trojans? lone female competitor, placed 41st in a field of 78 runners in the girls? 4-K race. Her time was 18:41.
