De Soto runners take aim on Kansas 4A state meet

De Soto enters the Kansas 4A cross country championships today at Wamego Country Club with both its boys and girls teams believing they have a shot at the state title.

“They’ve set lofty goals for themselves, they’ve worked hard for them all year long,” De Soto coach Chris McAfee said. “They want to win. We know that for the guys, there’s two really, really good teams in front of us and on the girls side we know that Baldwin is really, really good. But they’re prepared to go out and really compete, so I’m excited to see what’s going to happen.”

The De Soto boys took first at regionals last Saturday at Wyandotte County Park, while the girls were second.

Senior Austin Hinchey has led the boys team throughout the season and finished second individually at regionals in a time of 16:53.68.

The girls team, meanwhile, has relied on a number of runners to set the pace.

Junior Lacey Erickson entered the season as the team’s No. 1 runner, but she missed much of the season with an injury before returning to competition Saturday to place fourth. Junior Beth Reichenberger had emerged as a leader, but was hit with bronchitis and struggled at regionals, though McAfee said she is healthy now.

Meanwhile, junior Ellie Sheridan led the team at regionals with a third-place finish in 15:30.30 — the second fastest time she’s ever posted in a varsity race. And then there’s senior Carly Stanley, who holds the program record for fastest 4K time, which she set as a freshman when the De Soto girls won the 4A state title in 2006.

“Any of those four could be our No. 1 girl Saturday,” McAfee said. “And we would be successful with any one of them leading the way.”

submitted by RYAN YOUNG - 2009-10-29 19:36:01

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