Titans relish boys and girls cross country team championships

Lee’s Summit West High School senior Brennan Hampton said the secret to the Titans’ success this year was that the boys just wanted to have fun.

But of course, everything seems a lot more cheery when you’re winning and Lee’s Summit West did just that on Saturday when the Titans won the Missouri Class 4 team state championship.

“We stay low and concentrate on what we need to do,” said Hampton, one of four all-state runners — including individual champ Kevin Colon (15 minutes, 51 seconds). “We have fun more than anything — the dancing and all that messing around. Having fun and being positive is half the battle.”

The Titans won every meet this year, excluding the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota where the team placed second. Just like the Lee’s Summit West girls squad — dominant all season. The girls also closed their season with the Class 4 team state title as they had three runners all-state in the top 25.

Also in the Class 4 girls race, Lee’s Summit North sophomore Taylor Hynes placed third overall, Lee’s Summit senior Marlee Tegenkamp finished 17th and Raymore-Peculiar freshman Megan Forest ended up in 21st place. In the boys division, senior Adam Volkert of Lee’s Summit finished 13 seconds behind Colon in third place.

Harrisonville junior Maksim Korolev placed as the Class 3 runner-up and Barstow teammates Kaya LeGrand (15th overall) and Natalie Hays (20th) earned all-state status in Class 2.

In Class 1, Lone Jack sophomore Daniel Gilbert finished in 19th place, just one spot higher than Lutheran’s Brandon Enke.

submitted by CANDACE BUCKNER - 2008-11-13 19:14:02

Comments - leave comment