Yates Center sophomore Hadley Splechter enjoyed a nice run around Allen Community College’s campus on Tuesday, as he prepares to go to Lawrence this weekend for the Rim Rock meet.
“I’m going to run for time this weekend at Rim Rock, so then I’ll know more,” Splechter said when asked about his expectations for the rest of the year. “As of now, I ran a good time at our first meet without any hills, but the state meet is all hills.”
The only thing that was troubling to the Wildcat star is that he was running alone at the front of the pack at the Doc Stiles Invitational.
Splechter’s teammate and primary competition for the lead in many of their races this year, Colin Bedell, twisted his ankle around the one-mile mark of the 4K race — the race was shortened from a 5K due to the heat.
Without Bedell and Humboldt senior Joe Kline — who chose to not run as he prepares for Rim Rock — in the race, Splechter knew that he would likely not be pushed for the team title, but he also knew without Bedell, they would not be able to upset Iola for the team title.
That was correct on both counts, Splechter won the race with a 13:47.71 and was 37 seconds ahead of the runner-up, but Iola’s superior depth proved too much for Yates Center to overcome.
Even with Kline out, Splechter said that he never really thought about sitting out on Monday.
“I don’t think it would have mattered either way, I will run at Rim Rock however I’m going to run at Rim Rock whether I run here or not,” Splechter said. “If I wouldn’t have run here, I would have just put in a hard practice instead.”
Even with the Wildcats’ Jordan Smith turning in his best finish of the year in third place, Iola placed all five of their runners in the top-ten and rolled to an easy team title.
“Jordan has improved already this season,” Yates Center coach Rex McVey said. “He is new to cross country this year and I knew he was going to be a decent runner, but I didn’t know he was going to be what he is becoming.”
If Bedell would have finished the race in second-place and all the places had held behind him, Yates Center would have edged Iola by one point.
The order of Iola’s runners seems to change with every meet, but the thing that doesn’t change is that they all tend to end up with medals and at the end of the day, they are generally the ones with the team title.
Kendall Jay led the Mustang attack on Monday and took fourth-place with a time of 14:45.7.
“Kendall ran an impressive race over the shorter distance,” Iola coach Marv Smith said.
Isaiah Fawson and Cole Regehr were the sixth and seventh respectively and Elijah Fawson and Braden Plumlee took ninth and tenth.
Only 21 seconds separated Isaiah Fawson in sixth from Plumlee in tenth as the Mustang team circled the course together the entire race.
Bryce Andres was the other Mustang to enter the race and he finished in 27th in the 65-runner field.
Yates Center’s Enrique Rodriguez finished 15th while Asher Shivers finished 18th, Aaron King took 22nd and Braydon Gaulding was 48th.
Without Kline in the race, Humboldt’s top finisher was Josh Vanetta in 24th place.
Layton Gillespie was the next Cub to finish with a 36th-place showing and Miah Scheimann finished 58th.
“They have all met or exceeded my expectations for what I thought they could do at this point in the year,” Humboldt coach Eric Carlson said of his boys’ runners. “Hopefully they keep working hard and keep pushing each other and towards the end of the year, we will see what happens.”
Marmaton Valley did not have a runner in the varsity race.
BOYS J.V.
Iola’s Calvin Delich is back from his injuries that have hampered him this season and in the junior varsity race, he demonstrated to Smith why the Iola coaching staff may soon have some tough decisions about who to run varsity and who to run junior varsity.
Delich took third with a time of 16:36.03 — which would have earned him 29th in the varsity race.
Delich’s teammate Blake Haar was eighth with a 17:23.43.
Orion Roach, Francisco Barria and Jonathan Rodewald rounded out the Mustang runners by finishing 44th, 55th and 68th respectively in the 93-runner field.
Yates Center’s Dallas Knowles finished 12th while his teammate Austin Crabtree was 48th.
Caleb Coronando, in 18th place, led Humboldt. Briar Orth was 28th and Luke Yokum finished 40th.
Marmaton Valley was represented in the race by Dmitri Lamping, who finished 65th.
GIRLS VARSITY
The Fillies’ loaded freshman class continues to impress in the early going this season.
With senior Megan Klubek having to be sidelined for the race, Smith used an all-freshman lineup and saw two of his runners finish in the top-seven.
Elysia Kunkler was the first Iolan to cross the finish line with a sixth-place time of 17:55.95, while classmate Kelsey Morrison was right on her heels and finished seventh with a 17:58.84.
“It is cool being a freshman that runs varsity and being able to medal,” Morrison said.
Rachel Bycroft and Elka Billings also earned medals for the Fillies with 18th- and 21st-place finishes respectively.
Ella Taylor rounded out the Iola runners with a 37-place finish.
Maramaton Valley junior Shelby Yoho finished in 11th-place for the Wildcats.
“My goal was to get top-15 so I made that goal,” Yoho said.
Paydyne Durand, who was able to finish in 23rd, represented Humboldt.
“Durand is really working hard and really pushing herself in practice,” Carlson said. “Her goal is to make it to state and she has been close for three years, but hasn’t quite gotten over that hump.”
Yates Center’s Jaylee Catron was 29th.
GIRLS J.V.
The future for Marmaton Valley girls’ cross country is certainly bright with three capable freshmen currently competing on the junior varsity level and seeming pointed to join Yoho next season at the varsity level.
Christina Mynatt leads that group. She finished third in the junior varsity race with a time of 20:25.64.
“She ran a good race,” Marmaton Valley coach Steve Smith said.
Her teammates Heather Hicks and Allison Heim finished 18th and 32nd respectively.
Iola had a pair of top-10 finishers with Madisyn Holloway and Olivia Taylor taking sixth and ninth respectively.
Kylee Maloney finished in 25th place for Iola.
Humboldt’s Alex Melendez finished in 36th for the Cubs.
Yates Center’s Katelyn Jones finished in 52th.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Iola was flat-out dominant at the middle school level as they won all four races.
Josie Plumlee and Trenton Varney were the seventh-grade champions. Averie Sharon and Jack Adams were the eighth-grade champions.
Iola’s Ursula Billings was second in the seventh-grade girls’ race and Humboldt’s Drew Wilhite was second in the boys’ seventh-grade race.
Iola seventh-grader Brett Morrison and eighth-grader Nathan Louk each had third-place showings in the boys’ races.
Yates Center’s top finisher was Angel Rodriquez with a fourth-place finish in the seventh-grade boys’ race.
Riley Jay was fourth in the eighth-grade boys’ race for Iola.
Humboldt’s Drew Schoendaller was right behind Jay and took fifth.
