Even though she finished fourth, Kaylee Engle was not happy at all with her performance at the Flint Hills League cross country race.
The junior at Chase County High School had a time that day of 18:02, a number she knew would not get it done at the state meet two weeks later.
Engle improved her time by 26 seconds to finish fifth at the regional meet and qualify for state. At the 2A state meet in Wamego, she took 18th place by running the course in 17:04.
“My goal was to run my best time,” Engle said. “I wanted to medal at state and I was able to.”
Engle and nine other runners who had outstanding seasons were named to the 2011 Emporia Gazette All-Area Cross Country Team.
The girls selected were Engle, Meg Detwiler (Emporia), Kimberly Smith (Northern Heights), Taylor Scheidegger (Olpe) and Emily Samuels (Olpe). Boys chosen were Drew Detwiler (Emporia), Derek Nuessen (Olpe), Collin Metzger (Emporia), Tony Hecht (Council Grove) and Matthew Parks (Northern Heights).
Engle was chosen as Runner of the Year and Emporia High’s Mark Stanbrough was chosen as Coach of the Year.
Stanbrough guided the EHS girls to the state cross country meet and two boys qualified for state as individuals. He said this year’s squad had a lot of young runners who developed over the course of the season.
Stanbrough said Meg Detwiler led the way for the girls team.
“She was the No. 1 runner for us and was a key to why we were successful,” he said.
Detwiler, a freshman, finished 33rd at state with a time of 16:45. She finished second at the Class 5A regional meet at Stateland Park in Topeka. Her time was 16:17. Earlier in the season, Detwiler placed fifth in the Salina Invitational and 16th at the Spartan Invitational.
Smith, a senior at Northern Heights, finished the 2A state race in 17:43. She was the 33rd runner to cross the finish line. She was sixth in the Flint Hills League meet with a time of 18:28. She took fourth at the regional meet in 17:49. That helped the Wildcats qualify as a team for state by finishing second at the regional.
“Kimberly had a very strong season and she deserves this honor,” said Northern Heights coach Jann Briggs.
Scheidegger, an Olpe junior, took 47th in the 2A state race with a time of 18:21. She was ninth at the regional race in Mound City and took fourth at the Northern Heights Invitational.
Teammate Emily Samuels finished eighth in 18:01 at the regional race. Samuels advanced to state and was in 16th place at the two-mile mark, said coach Tom Camien. She suffered an asthma attack and was unable to finish the race, he said. For the complete story see the Gazette print edition or the online print edition at http://www.emporiagazette.com/pdf. To subscribe to the print edition or the online print edition go to http://www.emporiagazette.com/subscribe.
empciz (anonymous) says...
mark was my cc coach 12 years ago, glad to see him doing well. congrats good sir.
November 23, 2011 at 8:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
good job !
November 23, 2011 at 9:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
Great job runners!
December 3, 2011 at 2:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Are high school athletic programs too expensive? How much does it take to run a CC program in each school? What is the ratio of kids to expenses?
December 3, 2011 at 7:19 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
Why does a county of 30k people have three school districts with just the Superintendents alone being paid over $400k? Add in the $100k salaries for nearly every Principal in all three districts. We have 105 counties in Kansas but have well over 400 school districts, with the schools getting over 60% of the Kansas tax budget paid to them. Student athletes tend to be better students(not the case everytime but the majority of the time), it's a much better investment than a paper pusher with a huge salary IMO.
December 3, 2011 at 11:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
I definitely don't disagree with you, neighbor. I agree that athletic programs are a good investment in young people.
That being said, I hope you and others on these forums recognize my attempt at satire. I said what I did about cutting student athletic programs because for quite some time now, people on these forums have done nothing but complain about school expenditures. Do you think those same people would be willing to cut extremely expensive athletic programs too?
December 3, 2011 at 12:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )