By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Silver Lake's boys will be looking to build off last week's Mid-East League championship when all 10 Shawnee County high schools compete for state berths in Saturday's regional cross country meets.
Silver Lake and Rossville will both compete in a Class 3A regional at the Leonardville Golf Course (10 a.m. girls, 10:45 boys), while Topeka High and Washburn Rural will compete in a 6A regional at Manhattan (10 girls, 10:40 boys), Highland Park, Seaman, Shawnee Heights and Topeka West will take part in a 5A regional at Kanza Park (9 girls, 9:45 boys), Hayden will host a 4A regional, also at Kanza Park (10:30 girls, 11:15 boys), and Cair Paravel will be part of a 2A regional at Central Heights (10 girls, 10:40 boys).
Silver Lake tuned up for postseason last Thursday, winning the league title by 38 points while dropping its average team time by two seconds.
"The wind made things tough, but our runners made the best of it,'' Eagle coach Kevin Brokaw said.
Sophomore Jared Johnson paced the Eagles with a second-place individual finish while junior Eli Ferguson finished third, senior Mason Brokaw fourth and sophomore Aemon Coffman seventh to earn league medals.
"(I'm) especially proud of sophomore Jared Johnson who continues to improve and broke under 18 minutes for the first time,'' Kevin Brokaw said.
Silver Lake's girls dropped their team time average by 29 seconds to 22:22 and placed second behind Riley County by just four points after losing to the Falcons by 11 points two weeks earlier.
"(We) will try our best to get them at regionals,'' Kevin Brokaw said.
Senior Mariah Farmer finished third in the league meets, with sophomore Tessa Gerber seventh and freshman Kylie Podlena ninth.
"We had 17 season-bests out of 27 runners,'' Kevin Brokaw said.
Senior Amelia Foster finished fifth to lead Rossville in the girls race while the Bulldawg boys got an eighth-place finish from junior Mason Broce and a 10th-place finish from senior Hayden Sanders.
• Washburn Rural swept the Centennial League titles last week, with the the Junior Blues riding a one-two-three individual finish to a 27-62 win over Junction City and Rural winning the boys title by a 44-47 margin over Manhattan.
Washburn Rural sophomore Payton Fink followed up her city championship with a win in last Saturday's Centennial League meet. [File photo/TSN]
Sophomore Payton Fink won the girls title in a five-kilometer time of 18 minutes, 53.9 while senior Madeline Carter (19:11.0) and sophomore Rylee Ismert (19:25.1) finished second and third.
The Rural girls also got an eighth-place finish from Brooklyn Nolte (20:36.4) and a 13th-place finish from Vilde Tronstad (21:03.7) to round out the Junior Blues' top five.
Rural's boys got third and fourth-place finishes from seniors Davin Johnson and Easton Dial to lead the Junnior Blues to the team title.
Senior Grayson Fink (17:21.4) finished eighth for Rural's boys, followed by junior Hayden Keller (17:30.3) in 12th place and senior Trevor Cain (17:42.2) in 17th.
Hayden's girls finished fifth as a team, led by Elliot Wrench's 17th-place finish in 21:23.8, while Topeka High placed sixth, led by Marilina Zuniga, who placed 33rd in 24:46.3.
Hayden and Topeka High finished fifth and sixth in the boys team standings.
Topeka High's Michael Christoper and Hayden's Aiden Amis both posted top-10 finishes in the boys race, with Christopher (17:23.1) taking ninth and Amis (17:26.0) 10th.
• Seaman's girls and Topeka West senior Lenny Njoroge claimed titles in last Thursday's United Kansas Conference meet at Shawnee Heights
Seaman won the girls team championship by a 31-35 margin over De Soto while Njoroge continued his dominant season with a 20-second-plus win in the boys race.
Topeka West senior Lenny Njoroge posted his fifth straight individual win in last Thursday's UKC cross country meet. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman's Ryin Miller continued her banner freshman season with a second-place finish in the UKC meet, helping lead the Vikings to the league team title. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman freshman Ryin Miller, who clocked a five-kilometer time of 19 minutes, 16.8 seconds, and senior Bethany Druse (20:02.5) finished two-three individually to lead the Viking girls while sophomore Stella Appelhanz placed seventh (20:37.5), senior Leah Spurlock ninth (20:59.8) and junior Savannah Sampson 15th (21:19.1) to round out Seaman's top five. Junior Elinor Stallbaumer was 19th (21:51.4) and sophomore Anna Becker 20th (21:52.5) for the Vikings.
Shawnee Heights' girls finished fourth in the UKC, with junior Verena Trollman leading the T-Birds with a 21-place individual finish (21:53.0). Freshman Payton Rice led Topeka West with a 25th-place finish (22:14.5).
In the UKC boys race Njoroge posted his sixth win in seven races on the year, including five straight, clocking a time of 16:04.4 seconds to win by just under 21 seconds.
Shawnee Heights junior Jackson Esquibel came on strong at the end of the race and overtook De Soto senior Joshua Fullmer for second place, helping the T-Birds finish second as a team behind De Soto (37-65). Esquibel clocked a time of 16:25.1.
Heights also got a sixth-place finish from senior Kory Sutton (17:06.4) while senior Andrew Emerson finished 11th (17:29.7) and sophomore Evan Carter 16th (17:48.2). Junior Landon Staniec finished 30th (18:59.1) to round out the T-Birds' top five.
Seaman finished third as a team with 79 points, getting a seventh-place finish from senior Zach Jowers (17:11.4) while seniors Branen Moore (17:43.1) and Landon Stuke (17:45.5) were 13th and 14th to lead the Vikings.
• Cair Paravel freshman Eli Duenes finished seventh in last Saturday's Kaw Valley Conference meet in 20:00.05 while sophomore Cecilia Richards finished 13th (29:40.14) and freshman Abigail Richards 14th (31:26.62) in the girls race.
