Park Hill’s Natalie Gerdes and Park Hill South freshman Madilynn Conklin led the way for six Trojans and Panthers who advanced to state with impressive finishes in the Class 5 District 4 Meet at Jesse James Park on Oct. 29.
Park Hill South freshman Madilynn Conklin qualified for the Class 5 State Meet with top-2 finish in the Class 5 District 4 Meet at Jesse James Park on Oct. 29.
Conklin was only beat by one runner – Blue Springs’ Abigail Brackenbury – as the freshman was the district runner-up with a time of 19:35. Gerdes punched a ticket to state by finishing in eighth place with a time of 20:02.
Park Hill South’s Melania Puszczak and Ella Conklin also kept their season’s alive when they finished back-to-back in 27th and 28th places with the freshman being ahead by eight seconds. Puszczak finished with a time of 20:32 and Conklin crossed the finish line in 20:40.
Juniors Mia James and Mackenzie Wright were the next two Park Hill South runners to complete the 5K as the duo were the 35th and 38th runners to finish as James ended with a time of 20:59 and Wright finished in 21:09. Andrea Garcia finished with a time of 22:16 and Lauren Bishard finished in 22:53.
Ava Sullivan was the next Lady Trojan after Gerdes to cross the finish line as the junior took 58th place in 22:23, while Sidney Hendrix ended her freshman campaign with a time of 22:47 and Abby Stevens finished in 22:50. Jordan Umstattd finished with a time of 23:20, Edith Fink finished with a time of 23:28 and Kate Hance finished with a time of 23:21.
All of the Trojan runners finished in under 19 minutes with the next two after Jakob Johnston - who ended with a time of 17:00 in 19th place to qualify for state - having sub-18 times. Cade Pummill ended in 42nd place in 17:37 and Lucas Urista claimed 47th place when the senior crossed the finish line in 17:43, followed by Nathan Chen in 58th place in 18:02 and Samuel Benson claimed 61st place in 18:08.
For the Park Hill South boys, freshman Thomas Garett was the top runner – and it was good enough to qualify for state – as his time of 17:01 put him in 22nd place. Atticus Cowan ran one second below 18 minutes to take 53rd place.
Timothy Tasler and Ethan Irving ended their Panther cross-country careers with some sub-19 times as the duo finished in 60th and 75th places with times of 18:07 and 18:40, respectively. Freshman Grant Windmeyer ended in 80th place in 18:54 and sophomore Zachary Hilzinger finished in 19:24 in 85th place.