The cross country team hosted a meet for the first time Sept. 13 on school grounds. Twenty-one teams showed up with 540 runners total in 1A through 6A. The boys placed third as a team in 5A-6A, and the girls placed sixth.

Seniors Derek Drees and Blake Mathews and sophomore Dylan Schmitt and Konner Buxton were the only runners to place for the team. Drees ran his race that was slightly short of a 5K in 17:17 and placed third. Mathews, Schmitt ad Buxton competed in junior varsity and placed 6th, 8th and 11th in times of 19:16, 19:19 and 19:27. Seniors Joshua Brungardt and Ethan Fort ran in times of 18:16 and 18:20. Juniors Kendall Kandt, Landon Munsch, Hunter Bizzell and Austin Chambers had times of 18:23, 18:32, 18:57 and 20:08.

The girls had no placers, but freshman Haley George led the varsity girls with a time of 16:16. Sophomore Summer Smith and junior Wendy Zimmerman followed close behind with times of 16:33 and 16:51. Sophomore Mattison Schlaefli, juniors Reagan Kaiser and Megan Dinkel and senior Arin Pfannenstiel finished the race in times of 17:03, 17:05, 17:09 and 17:19.

For the race at McPherson on Sept. 20, Mathews will run with the varsity boys and the varsity girls team will stay the same.