Boys & girls run well; Nic Crotts to state meet

The Louisburg Wildcat Cross Country teams ran well at the sub state meet at Wyandotte County Park on Saturday, October 24, 2009. The Wildcat boys and girls teams were unable to qualify for the state meet next week in Wamego, but Nic Crotts punched his ticket to the state meet with a 14th place finish in a time of 18:02.78, which placed him in the top five non-team finishers and gave him a shot to run in Wamego.

Other Wildcat boys finishers included; Nick Klein (18:24.31) in 26th place; Connor Hopkins (19:10.57) in 43rd place; Mark Sitek (19:26.51) in 48th spot; and Frank Totta (21:44.44) in 70th place. In the team standings, the Wildcats were in fifth place with 163 points, behind winner DeSoto with 25 points, Runner-up Baldwin with 42 points; Paola with 85 points; and Basehor-Linwood with 126 points. Rounding out the team standings were Eudora (165); St. James Academy (176); Tonganoxie (182) and Ottawa (245).

Crotts will join the rest of the state qualifiers in the Cross Country Championship in Wamego on Halloween day, next Saturday, October 31, 2009. The boys race is set for 11:00 a.m.

On the girls side of the competition, Gwen Baumgardner covered the 4K course in a time of 17:53.58 which placed her in the 31st position. Kristen Fisher (19:00.72) finished 46th; Kaitlin Wertz (19:12.32) finished 51st; Tierna Jacobsen (20:03.13) and Melanie Battaglia (20:10.05) finished in 62nd and 63rd spots respectively. None of the girls times were fast enough to qualify for the state meet.

The Wildcat girls finished in 9th place overall with a score of 218. Baldwin was the girls team champion with 35 points. Rounding out the top three state team qualifiers were DeSoto with 55 points and St. James Academy with 93 points.