INDEPENDENCE — Iola High’s Mustangs captured their first meet title of the season Thursday. The Mustang cross country runners scored 45 points, taking four of the top 13 places at the Independence High Invitational.
Arkansas City was second with 58 points, followed by Labette County with 60, Pittsburg 82 and Independence 104. There were 11 schools competing in the meet.
Pittsburg’s girls took the varsity race with 34 points and Independence had 57 points. Iola High’s Fillies entered two varsity runners and did not have a team score.
Roman Yocham paced the Mustangs with a third-place finish in 17 minutes, 50 seconds for the 3.1-mile course. Right behind Yocham was teammate Trent Latta in fourth at 17:58.
Jeremy Spears earned the eighth-place medal with a time of 18:27. Tyler Powelson picked up the 13th-place medal in 19:02. There were 15 medals awarded individually and team medals for the top three in the varsity races.
Bryan Miller ran 20th in 19:36 for Iola. Christian Kauth finished 26th in 19:50 and Kohl Endicott came in at 39th in 21:15.
“As a team, we had an excellent race. Bryan Miller took several seconds off of his best time under very windy conditions,” said Marvin Smith, IHS cross country coach. “Roman, Trent and Jeremy moved into the top 10 just before the one-mile mark and ran a very steady pace.”
Smith said Thursday’s race was a good tune-up for the Southeast Kansas League meet Thursday in Iola. Smith said Chanute did not compete at Independence and is the solid favorite for the SEK title.
So are the Chanute girls. Pittsburg won the Independence meet but its Nos. 1 and 2 runners are from Pittsburg’s St. Mary’s-Colgan High and may not score in the SEK meet, Smith said.
Iola’s Sydney Owens claimed 12th in the varsity girls’ race. She ran the 2.5-mile race in 17:40. Kelsey Larson was 46th in 20:57.
“Sydney moved from 17th to 12th in the last three-quarters of a mile. I think she likes to pass runners. She lays back for the first half-mile or so and moves up steadily. One time, I’d like to get her to go stronger toward the front to see if she can hang with the leaders,” Smith said.
Iola’s girls had two runners in the junior varsity race. Jo Lohman placed third in 19:05 and Lauren Hunt was fourth in 25:24.
Iola’s junior varsity boys finished second behind Parsons by eight points. Several of Iola’s top underclassmen did not compete.
Jordan Strickler led the junior varsity, finishing third in 20:21. Michael Wilson took fifth in 20:40, followed by Bryan Mueller in 21:54 and Christjan Ruby picked up his first cross country medal in 14th at 21:55.
Travis Hermstein missed out on a medal by one place, taking 16th in 22:00 for the 3.1-mile race. Jarrett Mosbrucker was 17th in 22:11.
