The North Platte and West Platte cross-country teams continued their strong season with impressive outings at the KCI Conference Meet at Platte Ridge on Oct. 15.
North Platte freshman Chloe Heckman became a KCI Conference Champion at the KCI Conference Meet on Oct. 15.
The race was also technically the West Platte Invitational as well, so there were non-conference schools there, but they didn’t count when it came down to conference results. The boys’ race featured the defending Class 1 State Champion Riley Blay from West Nodaway.
In the KCI Conference results, North Platte won both the races while the West Platte boys finished one point behind the Panthers to take second place. While it wasn’t as close – since the North Platte girls had four of the first six finishers – the Lady Blue Jays also took second place in the KCI.
The West Platte boys finished third overall, only three points behind North Platte, counting all teams and runners not in the KCI. West Platte senior Charlie Kinslow challenged Blay for the first mile, but the reigning champion won the race and set a new West Platte Invitational record time of 16:12, which is 30 seconds faster than his winning time last season at Platte Ridge.
Kinslow took second overall and won the KCI with a time of 16:54, winning his third straight individual title to become the only three-time conference champion in KCI history. Tristan Newkirk ran well, setting a course PR for himself and finishing seventh overall and fifth in the KCI in a time of 17:54.
Jonah McGivern fought through some discomfort to finish in 24th overall and ninth in the conference, followed closely by Noah Rees. McGivern crossed the finish line in 18:45 and Reese finished in 19:06.
Thomas Deffet continued to strive for improvement and ran in 21:22, followed closely by Hutch Bartee who came across in 21:27. Antonio Laguna rounded out the boys’ team, finishing in 27:25.
For North Platte, Noah Heckman and Josh Schaffart both earned KCI All-Conference Honors in back-to-back spots in third and fourth places. The duo finished with times of 17:36 and 17:46, respectively.
Freshman Drake Keraus finished in 12th place with a time of 19:02. Hunter Palmer and Mark Humes ended in 17th and 18th places, respectively, followed by Waylon McCracken in 33rd place and Jackson Cassity in 37th place to bring home the first North Platte boys’ cross-country conference title in program history.
In the girls’ race, the Lady Panthers stole the show with two younger classmen being the first and second runners to finish. Freshman Chloe Heckman became a KCI Conference Champion with a time of 20:21, followed by sophomore Brianna DeBord who took second place in 20:37.
Jessa Cassity finished fourth with a time of 20:56 and Shelby Lingle took sixth place with a time of 22:12. West Platte junior Julia Pattison ended in between the two North Platte runners as the top Lady Blue Jay runner crossed the finish line in 21:32 for fifth place.
Lonee French helped solidify the dominant North Platte race when the senior finished in ninth place in 23:07. Half of the top-10 KCI finishers were Lady Panthers.
West Platte freshman Addison Bailey just missed all-conference status as she finished two spots out in 12th place with a time of 23:44. Kaitlyn Reinke finished in 17th place in the KCI to help West Platte take second place in the conference.
The last regular season race for West Platte is on Oct. 19 at Richmond before postseason starts. The Class 2 District 4 race will be back at Platte Ridge Park on Oct. 29 with the boys running the first race at 9:30 A.M. as both West Platte and North Platte are in it.