North Platte sophomore Chloe Heckman (#5807) leads the pact of girl cross-country runners, alongside West Platte senior Julia Pattison (#5875) at the beginning of the KCI Conference Meet at Platte Ridge Park on Oct. 15.
PLATTE CITY – For the second time in program history, the North Platte boys and girls were KCI Conference Champions at Platte Ridge Park on Oct. 14.
Over the years, North Platte has won multiple conference titles on both sides but only on the same day twice. It has now happened in back-to-back years.
North Platte, West Platte and East Buchanan were the only three schools in the KCI who had enough runners to compete as a girls’ team. The Lady Panthers won with 28 points, the Lady Blue Jays took second place with 40 points and the Lady Bulldogs had 59 points for third place.
The boys race had six schools eligible as teams with North Platte coming out with 43 points, which was nine less points than second-place Lawson. West Platte took fourth place with 75 points.
North Platte sophomore Chloe Heckman was the individual KCI Conference Champion, crossing the finish line in 19:47.4. West Platte senior Julia Pattison ended her conference career as the runner-up with a time of 20:13.7.
North Platte’s next five runners all ended in the top-16. Brianna DeBord took fourth place in 21:00.3 and Annabell DeBord ended in eighth place in 23:17.
Caitlyn Cummings earned 11th place after crossing the finish line in 24:18.3. Lily Schaffart and Allyson Smith took 15th and 16th places with times of 26:48.5 and 27:10.4, respectively, while Kylee Sipes ended in 25th place in 28:58.
For the Lady Blue Jays, Peyton Reber and Addison Bailey were both all-conference runners. Reber took seventh place in 22:44 and Bailey ended in ninth place in 23:20.3.
Maggie Howard crossed the finish line in 26:42.6, good for 14th place. Ana Lupion Pelegrina took 29th place and Katheryn Kalic finished in 31st place, both running over 30 minutes.
Four of the first six finishers in the boys’ race were from West Platte and North Platte with the KCI Champion being Lawson senior Max Stephan in 17:25.5. Panther senior Noah Heckman was the runner-up in 17:27.7 and Blue Jay junior Jonah McGivern earned third place in 17:45.4.
North Platte sophomore Drake Keraus was the fifth KCI Conference runner to cross the finish line, doing so in 18:14.5. West Platte sophomore Noah Rees was one place and 12 seconds behind Keraus.
North Platte had the eighth and 10th place runners. Mark Humes ended in 18:55.8 and Hunter Palmer ended in 19:01.01.
North Platte was able to pull out the KCI Conference Title with its final three runners being in the top-25, led by 18th place Devin Navarro in 20:17.9. Brenden Matt and Jackson Cassity finished in back-to-back spots – in 23rd and 24th places – with times of 20:41.7 and 20:42.8, respectively.
West Platte had a bit of a gap from its second and third runners as Drake Montez ended in 20th place with a time of 20:18.8. Joe Blake was three seconds behind Montez.
Ben Pendergast completed the 5K in 20:45.6 and Wyatt Larsen ended his first KCI Conference race with a 29th place finish in 20:59. Thomas Deffet ended in 31st place with a time of 21:24.1.