GARNETT — Kohl Endicott did what he does best Thursday night — outrun everyone. Endicott helped lead Iola High’s varsity boys cross country team to a first place finish at the Pioneer League Cross Country Meet. BEFORE THE VARSITY races, Iola Middle School’s runners set the mood for the day. THE MUSTANG’S varsity runners will run the same course again next Saturday at the Class 4A Regional. Races start at 2 p.m.
The varsity girls took second place overall.
“What a nice reward for Kohl,” coach Marv Smith said. “As a sophomore, we ran the league meet without him because he had a broken arm. As a junior, he was the runner-up and now, he’s won it all.”
Endicott decimated the field, winning by 44 seconds. Endicott’s time for the 5k race was 18 minutes and 23 seconds. Braden Plumlee came in second at 19:07.
The 1-2 punch of Endicott and Plumlee gave Iola the lead. The contributing times of teammates helped seal the win. Iola also had the 10, 11 and 12 spots. Travis Hermstein finished in 20:07, Kendall Jay followed in 20:11 and Isaiah Fawson clocked in at 20:16. Not far behind in 16th, Blaine Klubek crossed the finish line at 20:24.
Smith said that the team didn’t know what to expect from Jay, since he missed the last five meets with a broken arm. Smith called him the team’s “just-in-case runner.”
“The end of the race has a tough 250-yard uphill finish,” Smith said. “Hermstein passed Jay at the bottom of the hill and ended with a four-second advantage.”
The varsity girls ran their 4k before the boys. Anderson County came in first.
“We were equally excited about the girls’ second place finish,” Smith said. “Anderson County won their eighth straight title and with their middle school program, they will be hard to beat in the future.”
Smith said the team needed their first four runners to have excellent races, which they did.
“We placed all four runners in front of Osawatomie’s number one runner and in front of Prairie View’s number two runner,” Smith said.
Olivia Taylor and Megan Klubek finished fifth and sixth. Taylor finished in 18:14 and Klubek followed three seconds later. Abigail Taylor and Jo Lohman took 10th and 11th place. Taylor clocked in at 19:08 and Lohman finished in 19:20. Addie Prather came in 36th with a time of 25:19. Klair Vogel finished in 27:08 for 39th place.
“After 12 minutes, Abigail was in big trouble and fading fast, but Jo had passed her and moved in the top 10,” Smith said.
“I felt confident because they had just traded expected finishes. The next time I saw Abigail, she was moving fast again and had caught up to Jo. Olivia and Megan just took care of business, running as a twosome throughout most of the race.”
The seventh grade girls finished their mile meet 1-2-3. Elysia Kunkler finished first with a 6:25 mile, Kelsey Morrison followed in 6:49 and Rachel Bycroft finished in 6:57. They didn’t qualifiy for a team score because they didn’t have five runners.
The seventh-grade boys won the team title over Wellsville by a single point. Elijah Fawson led the way with a first place finish in 6:01. River Hess came in at 6:39 for sixth place, followed by Brady Wiggins four seconds later for seventh place. Jeremy Ridge placed 13th with a time of 7:20. Eason Cheung finished in 15th in 7:36 and Orion Ridge took 19th in 8:43.
For the eighth-grade two-mile race, Jacob Burcham was the only Iola runner and finished 12th with a 17:47 mark.
“He got excited at the start and was actually in second place at the beginning,” Smith said. “But, that fast start took a toll later in the race.”
Kohl Endicott did what he does best Thursday night
