The Park Hill and Park Hill South girl cross-country teams had better outings than the boys did in the Kansas City Suburban Conference Silver Division Championship at Lee’s Summit North High School on Oct. 15.
The Lady Panthers won the conference title with the Lady Trojans taking third place and on the boys’ side, Park Hill South finished in fifth place and Park Hill claimed sixth place. Park Hill South had multiple freshmen step up.
Park Hill South’s Madilynn Conklin not only was the individual Silver Division Champion, but also set a new freshman record. She finished with a time of 18:58, which was 17 seconds faster than the second-place runner and is the third fastest time among all freshman girls in the entire state.
Melania Puszczak was the next Lady Panther to cross the finish line, doing so in 19:55 as the freshman ended in seventh place and has the 16th fastest freshman time in the state. Ella Conklin and Mia James finished in ninth and 10th places with times of 20:29 and 20:37, respectively.
Andrea Garcia finished in 12th place with a time of 20:47. Lauren Bishard finished in 21:03 one place ahead of teammate Mackenzie Wright who took 16th place in 21:05.
Natalie Gerdes was Park Hill’s top runner as the junior earned fourth place with a time of 19:44. Jordan Umstattd was the 21st runner to cross the finish line as the junior ended in 21:50.
Ava Sullivan finished in 24th place with a time of 22:05 and Abby Stevens took 27th place in 22:17. To pull off a top-3 finish in the Silver Division, Kate Hance finished in 30th place, Sidney Hendrix claimed 34th place and Reagan Kastner took 36th place.
In the boys’ race, Park Hill South freshman Thomas Garrett finished in fourth place overall with a time of 16:10, which set a new freshman program record and is also the second fastest time in all of Missouri for freshmen. Freshman Grant Windmeyer ran a sub-17 to earn 13th place with a final time of 16:57, which is currently the 12th best time in the entire state of Missouri among freshman.
Park Hill had four finishers before the next Park Hill South runner crossed the finish line, starting with sophomore Jakob Johnston who collected 14th place in 17:08. The next three Trojans – Lucas Urista, Caden Mills and Samuel Benson – ran a sub-18.
Park Hill South’s Timothy Tasler took 29th place, Zachary Hilzingler finished in 34th place and Tanner Clippard ended in 38th place. Cade Pummill, Ben Richenburg and Nathan Chen closed out the Silver Division race for the Trojans.
Park Hill and Park Hill South both closed out the regular season at the Silver Division Championship. The Panthers’ and Trojans’ next race is the Class 4 District 4 Race, which will be held at Jesse James Park in Kearney on Oct. 29.