RICHMOND — Iola High had a successful day on the cross country course Thursday.
Both the Mustang and Fillies squads picked up team victories, filling the leaderboards with several familiar names.
On the boys side, Jack Adams continued his sterling run through the 2020 season, with another gold medal.
Adams finished the 5K run 30 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, at 17 minutes, 24 seconds.
Several other Mustangs earned medals — they went to the top 20 — with all seven runners finishing in the top 23.
Head coach Marv Smith broke down the race.
“Jack had his usual fast-pace race,” Smith said. “He really did not have a serious challenger except the lead cart.”
The others — Jesse Taylor, Riley Jay, Kaster Trabuc and Nathan Louk — looked to a familiar competitor in Humboldt’s Drew Wilhite to keep the pace, Smith said.
Taylor took fourth, Jay sixth, Trabuc ninth and Louk 14th.
Youngsters Eli Adams and Japheth Rutah also had their best races of the season. Eli Adams took 20th for his first individual medal. Rutah’s 23rd place finish came in his first ever varsity race.
As a squad, the Mustangs compiled 24 points, well ahead of West Franklin’s 52. Fredonia was a distant third at 82.
ON THE GIRLS side, the Fillies’ Josie Plumlee took home fifth place, at 22:38 in what Smith described as a “scattered race’ with few clusters to help the runners maintain a good pace.
Still, Iola’s runners did well enough to cruise to the team title, with Elanie Sturgeon taking 12th, Averie Sharon 18th and Audrey Coltrane 20th to secure individual medals.
Kaylin Klubek, who normally runs in junior varsity races, stepped up to the varsity level to ensure Iola could earn a team score. (Schools need five runners to be eligible.)
Klubek’s 32nd place finish did just that, giving Iola 30 team points, ahead of Humboldt and Prairie View with 46 apiece. Humboldt took second in the team standings via a tiebreaker.
“I knew that our four regular girls would get good places so we asked Kaylin to enter the varsity race and finish to qualify us for a team score,” Smith said. “She did, and the girls took first place. My star of the day goes to Josie who was right at the finish line to cheer Kaylin and grab her as she was near a state of collapse.”
IOLA ALSO thrived in the junior varsity race. Drake DeLaTorre won it with a time of 20:56 after jumping to a huge lead in the first 400 meters. “He looked like the escaping bank robber with the posse in tow,” Smith joked, with five Mustang runners finishing in the top 10, and all seven in the top 14.
