Spots open for
newcomers on EHS cross country teams
By Joey Berlin
berlin@emporiagazette.com
The Emporia High boys cross country team reached the pinnacle last year. This fall, they’ll be starting over with almost an entire crew of fresh faces and legs. The girls, meanwhile, will have to fill the shoes of the most accomplished distance runner EHS has ever had.
Whether the Spartans will be rebuilding or reloading, expectations won’t be through the roof. Coach Mark Stanbrough knows there’s work to do.
“Right now, we just have to get better,” Stanbrough said. “Without setting any specific goals, we just want to get better over the next few weeks and then see where we’re at.
“I’d say we come in with very little experience on the boys side, moderate experience on the girls side.”
Exactly one runner with varsity experience, senior Tavo Dikin, will return from last year’s boys state championship team. Dikin was the Spartans’ seventh runner last season. He and his cousin, Sal Tovar, will be the only seniors on a team that Stanbrough expects will be heavy on sophomores.
The losses of seniors Jacob Davies, Asher Delmott, Tyler Anliker, Michael Robinson and Andrew Wayman, as well as the departure of junior Lance Sadler, open spots for such prospective varsity newcomers as Tovar and sophomores Tyler Tilton, Jack Heim and Matt Wayman.
“It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on us,” Tovar said of the leadership duties he and Dikin face. “Last year’s seniors, they were really good, and they’re all gone. And now me and Tavo... we have to step it up, and get the team back on track...”
The Spartan girls won’t be quite as green, but several spots are still available, with the door open for freshmen to carve out a spot on varsity. Two-time state champion Michaela Reynolds, the leader of last year’s State sixth-place team, is now running at Rice University.
Stanbrough’s daughter, Jenna, is poised to take Reynolds’ spot as the Spartans’ lead runner. Jenna, a junior who placed 52nd at State last year, spent the summer in a running regimen in which she averaged 50 miles per week.
“I’ve been really committed this past summer,” she said. “I feel like I’ve taken over a leadership role, and feel like I’m in a way responsible for helping this team.”
Katie Weaver will add senior leadership, while junior Joslyn Barton is also penciled in for a spot.
“Then, it’s kind of wide open after that,” Mark Stanbrough said.
The season opens Sept. 6 with a trip to Manhattan. The Spartans will host the Emporia Invite on Sept. 13 and this year’s Centennial League meet on Oct. 18, both at Jones Park.
Mark Stanbrough likes having the chance to host the league meet.
“If you compare to basketball and football, half their games are at home,” he said. “Well with cross country, you don’t get many opportunities to run at home. So I think that home meet, where your friends and your family can come out and cheer for you — I mean, (they) can’t when you’re on the road — I think it’s important for our program to have those home meets.”
CROSS COUNTRY SCHEDULE
9/6 at Manhattan
9/11 vs. Northern Heights at Orchard
9/13 EMPORIA INVITE
9/20 at Joplin
9/27 Meet at Rim Rock
10/4 at Seaman
10/11 at El Dorado
10/18 CENTENNIAL LEAGUE MEET
10/25 Regionals
11/1 State at Rim Rock