Northern Heights sweeps individual titles at Flint Hills League cross country meet
By Michael Ashford
Friday, October 13, 2006
Northern Heights runners swept the individual titles at Thursday’s Flint Hills League cross country meet at The Orchard, and the Wildcats had a chance to do the same as the team.
Amy Lee on the girls side and Pete Symmonds on the boys side each dominated their respective races, as both won by at least 20 seconds to win league titles.
And while the Northern Heights girls also finished in first place as a team with 28 points, the Northern Heights boys came up 39 points behind first-place Osage City (27 points) and 12 points back of Council Grove (54).
Lee led from start to finish, opening up a 10-second lead on teammate Leslie Dechamp by the one-mile mark and cruising from there to finish in a time of 16 minutes, 40 seconds. Dechamp finished in a time of 17:00 to place second.
“This is on our home course, and I just wanted to come out and run well. I wanted to win this,” Lee said. “I just tried to run my best and got the win.”
Bailey Ziegler finished seventh (18:00), Annie Adams came in eighth (18:04) and Gesina Miller placed 10th (18:18), giving Northern Heights all five scorers in the top 10. Northern Heights finished with 28 points while second-place Council Grove finished with 35 points.
“I think this is the best we’ve ever done as a team,” Lee said.
Symmonds’ race, which he described as “nearly perfect,” was almost identical to Lee’s race.
Symmonds took control of the lead early on and never looked back, opening up a gap between him and a pack of Osage City runners that only grew as the race went on.
“I felt pretty good,” Symmonds said. “The conditions were great, and I just felt good the whole race. I was a good day to run.”
The only problem with Symmonds’ race?
“I had a little left there at the end that I wish I would have used up during the race,” he said. “A little faster time wouldn’t have hurt anything.”
Osage City won the team title on the boys side thanks to a strong display of pack running by the Indians’ top-three runners.
Richard Woodward (18:18), Blake Stoppel (18:20) and Luke Gogolski (18:25) finished second, third and fourth, respectively, to lead six Osage City runners that placed in the top 15.
“That’s what we’ve been working on,” Osage City coach Jeff Edwards said. “A lot of the same kids ran for me last year, and in a year’s difference, the average team time has gone down about two minutes. They’ve trained hard ... and it really helped out.”
In winning the team title, Osage City defeated nemesis Council Grove for the first time this season. Council Grove had beaten the Indians twice this year, including at the Northern Heights Invitational on Sept. 14 when Council Grove won by 23 points.
“All week, that’s what the kids talked about,” Edwards said. “They didn’t want to let any blue and gold get past them.”