INDEPENDENCE — Marv Smith cringed as he watched the events unfold Tuesday afternoon — needlessly, as it turned out. IOLA PICKED UP a pair of gold medals in the junior varsity races as well.
Smith, Iola High’s cross country coach, saw the Mustangs’ top runner, Kohl Endicott make his move halfway through Tuesday’s Independence Invitational, racing to the front of a trio of Pittsburg High runners.
“I confessed to thinking, ‘What are you doing, Kohl? It’s only halfway through the race,’” Smith said.
Smith’s fears that the speedy Endicott would fade down the stretch never materialized.
Instead, “he continued to pull away from the Pittsburg trio and the Arkansas City lead runner,” Smith said.
Endicott’s time of 15 minutes, 55 seconds gave him the gold medal in the varsity boys 5-kilometer race, spearheading a team championship for the Mustangs in the process.
Iola brought home five of the top 14 places to win the team title with 29 points, well in front of runner-up Pittsburg’s 50, Labette County’s 55, Neodesha’s 130 and Independence’s 144.
Making the feat even more impressive, Pittsburg’s squad featured runners from Pittsburg Colgan-St. Mary’s .
“We proved we could win the Southeast Kansas League this year,” he joked. “Now, we just have to win the Pioneer League championship next week.”
The Pioneer League meet is Oct. 17 at Central Heights.
Other top finishers for the Mustangs included Braden Plumlee in seventh at 17:53, Jeremy Spears one second behind in eighth at 17:54, Michael Wilson in 13th at 18:25 and Travis Hermstein in 14th at 18:26. Blaine Klubek, 24th, finished in 19:14. Bryan Mueller was 32nd at 19:47.
For comparison’s sake, Mueller’s time was in front of Pittsburg’s fifth-fasted runner, Smith noted.
On the girls’ side, Iola’s Abigail Taylor took home sixth, finishing her 4k race in 17:13.
“Abigail ran a very good race timewise,” Smith said, even after being isolated from any other runners along the course after about a mile.
“She finished 13 seconds behind the fifth-place runner and 12 seconds ahead of seventh,” Smith said. “That’s a tough way to run.”
Colby Works was tops among boys JV runners with a time of 18:59, a mark that would have placed him 19th in the boys varsity, Smith noted.
Isaiah Fawson was fourth at 19:33, and Kendall Jay ran 19:54, good for fifth.
Others for the JV boys were Darius Greenawalt, 18th at 23:09, Dareece Bell, 24th at 24:28, and Ankit Gandhi, 29th at 26:40.
Iola was without two other top JV runners, Jacob Cooper and Yohon Sinclair, because of schedule conflicts.
“We were pleased with our second-place finish,” Smith said.
Iola’s JV, with 34 points, finished six points behind first-place finisher Labette County.
On the girls’ side, Iola’s Megan Klubek won the junior varsity race with a time of 18:51.
Smith noted Klubek’s time was more than a minute faster than the runner-up racer, but was not up to her lofty standards because of illness.
“She was undecided as to whether or not to run, until just before race time,” Smith noted. “Three individual race champions and the boys’ team title made for a nice day.”
Endicott takes top spot at Indy CC meet
