Runners Near Full-Throttle

The cross country campaign is quickly nearing the post-season.   The last event before the TRC and 1A Meets had all four county programs trek to Plainview for the Jodi Rahman Invite.   Matt Kingsbury’s LARP guys (58) notched their third team victory of the year, besting Pine Island (87), RACE (95), and St. Charles (98).  Chatfield took 6th, LFC 10th, and Kingsland 11th (of 11).  Junior Luke O’Hare set the pace, finishing in 17:22.1, a full 0:14 ahead of second place Andrew O’Hara of SC (17:36.3).  It was O’Hare’s fifth title.  Teammates Andrew Hoiness (18:03.9) and Ricky Buchanon (18:16.1) took sixth and eighth, Grady Hengel (18:43.7) 16th.  Mitchell Ledebuhr (27th) was LARP’s final scoring runner.   Carson Ruen (14th, 18:31.8) and Treyton Lanning (15th, 18:37.9) paced LFC and Chatfield.  Gophers Alex Wright (18th, 18:50.6), Brady Woltz (23rd, 19:07.7), and Evan Wright (25th, 19:19.8) also made the top 25.  On the girl’s side, PEM (48) rode the 1-2 finish of Madilyn Simon (20:23.7) and Molly Kate Hagen (20:27.2) to the team title over RACE (55), Cotter (85), and Chatfield (101).  LARP put out a full team, taking sixth while LFC was seventh (of 9).  Kingsland was incomplete.   Gopher Aletta Strande (20:55.2) took third.  LARP 8th graders Lauren Honken (21:30) and Ellie Ekern (22:07.2) ran their first varsity races of the year, finishing 5th and 11th respectively.  Gophers Tessa McMahon (17th, 22:26.9) and Abbi Gillespie (22nd, 22:49.2) made the top 25, as did LARP’s Hannah Linder (25th, 22:59.3).  Ninety-six girls ran while 129 boys competed at Piper Hills Golf Course.