A 5K star is Born at Rim Rock Farm

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Girls ran the same distance as the boys at the Kansas state championships for the first time and Molly Born of Shawnee Mission Southwest, a sophomore, wasted no time laying down a standard that will give future runners at the state meet something to shoot for.

Born won the 5,000-meter Class 6A race in 17:58.6 and finished 32 seconds ahead of runner-up Kayla Davis of Olathe-East. Two-time champion Emily Venters of Lawrence Free State was third.

Manhattan won the 6A title on a sixth-runner tiebreaker after it scored 72 points along with Lawrence Free State. The margin between the two sixth place runners was 19 seconds.

Classes 6A, 5A and 3A ran at Rim Rock Farm; Classes 4A, 2A and 1A ran at Wamego.

In the 6A boys race, Shawnee Mission North senior Belesti Akalu won the state title after joining the cross country team for the first time over the summer. He capped his first competitive season in the sport by running 15:43.4 and defeating reigning champ Jackson Schroeder of Manhattan, who was 11 seconds back and finished second. Olathe North won its first team championship with 97 points. North held big advantages at 2 and 3 against rival Olathe East, which was second.

In Class 5A it was all St. Thomas Aquinas. The girls went 1-2-3 up front, led by sophomore Margaret Pigott, who won in 18:41.2. The team scored 30 points.

The boys were even more impressive, going 1-2-3-4 on the way to an all-time low score record of 22 points. Senior Michael Shanahan got the win in 15:48.5.

In Class 4A, at Wamego, Cailie Logue ran 18:08.9 to win by 73 seconds in the second-fastest time of the day. Logue ran 18:00.30 on the course at Rim Rock Farm in September.

The Baldwin boys and girls teams swept the team titles. The girls celebrated a 45-point result. The boys scored 47.

Riley Osen of Winfield ran 15:44.9 to win the 4A boys race in convincing fashion. He won by 33 seconds.

In Class 3A, senior Klair Gibson of Douglass ran 19:34.9 and won by more than 50 seconds at Rim Rock Farm. Southeast-Saline won the team championship with advantages at 1, 2 and 3 against runner-up Hiawatha and scored 85 points.

In the boys race, junior Steven Cline of Halstead led his team to the championship with an individual victory in 17:07.9. All of Halstead’s five scorers were inside the top 20 scorers.

In Class 2A, at Wamego, freshman Kya Johnson from Bennington won the girls race by 25 seconds in 19:36.5. Ellinwood had the best pack in the field and won the team title with 57 points. Kyler True from Olpe, a junior, won the boys race in 16:28.1. Shawnee-Maranatha Academy scored 60 points and won the meet on the strength of its fourth and fifth guys.

In Class 1A, Jenny O’Bryan from St. Paul won the girls race in 20:06.1 and Greeley County won the team title with 42 points. St. Paul was second with 59. Burke Deters from Axtell won the boys race in 17:32.2 and Natoma edged out Frankfort (72-79) for the team win.