C-team Cross Country takes care of competition at Emporia

Parker Dawdy, Staff Writer

Both girls and boys cross country C team for Manhattan High School soundly won the Emporia Invitational on Sept. 8. The boys got first out of four full teams and beat Emporia High, in second, by 34 points. The girls had less competition, with only two full teams, but did just as well beating out Junction City by 23 points.

Running in packs was put into practice at Emporia, especially with the girls. They occupied eight out of the top 10 spots with, sophomore,Tori Nelson being the top-placing Indian in second place overall with a time of 19:52.10. Hot on her heels was another Indian, freshman Amber Huztler. She was only .6 seconds away from Tori at 19:53.50. In total the girls only had a 1 minute and 18 second gap between their first and fifth place finishers.

Freshman Ray Mackay was the leader for MHS boys and for the race. He beat second place finisher Tanner McGuire of Emporia by 4.60 seconds, finishing with a time of 16:12.10. The Indian behind him was sophomore Zach Paqutte coming in with a time of 16:47.40. They claimed five out of the 10 spots but they only had a difference of 53 seconds between their first and fifth place racers.

Mother Nature did not make this race easy for them, mking sure that it was still wet by the time they ran, but that didn’t stop any of the MHS runners.

“It was a lot of work, there [were] mud puddles scattered around the course and we had to just man up and run straight through them,” freshman Jonno Wefald said.

They got a lucky in the way that even though it was muddy it was one of the flatter courses they get to run. Even if they did not place they still had a great time and enjoyed themselves.

If you want to see if they sweep up the competition again their next meet is at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Tonganoxie.

This online exclusive story is written as an assignment for 21st Century Journalism, Manhattan High’s introductory journalism class.