West Platte’s boys and North Platte’s girls earned runner-up finishes in the KCI Conference Championships, held in conjunction with the West Platte Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 17 at Platte Ridge Park in Platte City.
Max Davies became the third runner to lead the Blue Jays this season, setting a personal record in 18 minutes, 52 seconds — good for fourth place. Daniel Cicha also ran his best race in a month and finished sixth at 18:56 with sophomore Andy Cicha close to a PR at 19:06 in ninth place.
The trio helped West Platte to a team score of 52 — just 12 points back of champion Lawson — for a second straight runner-up finish at conference.
North Platte’s Dylan Stockman turned in the best individual finish for a local team on the boys side, beating Davies to the line for third place. The senior standout finished in 18:20, just barely at the rear of the lead pack of three runners.
Eric Brown (18:59) added a seventh-place finish for the Panthers, who were third with 78 points.
On the girls side, North Platte’s Bailee Romaker (11th) and Shelby Fisher (12th) finished back-to-back in the 44-runner field to help the Panthers to a team 85. That was well back of champion Lawson (38) and just enough to edge Lathrop (88) and Mid-Buchanan (89).
West Platte’s Lea Moose set a new personal record with the fourth best freshman time for the program in the past 10 years (22:41). Her fifth-place finish along with Rachel Heili’s top-10 effort (10th, 23:40) led the Bluejays while Patti Callahan and Gretchen Hiatt all took a break from volleyball season to help fill the lineup.
Running with a full team for just the second time this season, West Platte finished fifth with 122 points.
West Platte Invitational
Platte County rested its regulars and sent reserve lineups to Platte Ridge Park while still experiencing success.
On the girls side, the Pirates were fifth with freshman Hannah Valentine recording a 13th-place finish (22:18) in an 88-runner field. Haley Valentine, a senior, rounded out the top 20 at 23:01.
Platte County junior Payton Anderson (36th, 19:12) and Nick Wright (39th, 19:15) were the top finishers for the boys. The Pirates were eighth out of 17 teams with a 229, 17 points back of North Platte.