This past Saturday, the Ellsworth High School cross country boys and girls competed in the 3A regional hosted by Southeast of Saline. The top three teams and top 10 individual runners were guaranteed a trip to the State meet in Wamego.

In order to qualify as a team, schools must have at least five girls or five boys competing in their respective races.

The girls’ race was first Saturday morning, with 54 competitors in the field, and four of the top 10 ranked teams competing.

Freshman Madison Newell was the first Lady Bearcat to cross the line in a fast girls’ race, finishing close to a season’s best time, with a time of 24:47. She finished strong, and held off challenges from Smoky Valley and Halstead runners to secure her place against these older runners. Kirsten Meier finished her last race as a Lady Bearcat cross country runner on Saturday. She posted a season’s best time of 25:09, one of her best times in the last two seasons. She was a welcome addition to the program four years ago and has been such a positive leader and teammate through the years. Fighting knee injuries throughout the last three years, she showed resilience in continuing to work every day. She will be missed next year. Noah Goss was unable to run due to injury. She made great prog ress throughout the season, and I’m looking forward to seeing her progress next year.

None of the Lady Bearcat runners qualified for State.

On the boys’ side, the competition in the field of 87 runners at Southeast would probably be best described as the State Championships, one week early. In coach’s poll rankings, seven of the top 10 state-ranked teams competed, with State berths for only three

The results pretty well matched those team rankings. This would prove to be the fastest regional of the 15 regionals in the state in all 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A classifications. In spite of several personal best times in this fast regional, the EHS boys weren’t able to qualify anyone for the State meet.

Byron Johnson broke the 18-minute threshold by hitting a career best time of 17:49. A sub-18 minute 5K is a significant milestone for distance runners. He ran a great race, ran very smart, very measured but in the end came up just a little bit short of his goal to qualify for State. In spite of this, he is optimistic about next year, and I don’t doubt that he’ll qualify for the state meet.

Colton Bettenbrock ran a season’s best time of 20:28, edging out a Haven runner at the finish. The rest of the guys hit personal best marks, which bodes well for the 2022 season. Jacob Togersen finished with a PR time of 20:34, with a great kick and finish at the end of his race. Trenton Holmes had a great kick too, and was closing in on another freshman at the finish, and finished with a time of 20:42 for a season’s and personal best. Aidan Johnson knocked over a minute off his PR time, running a 22:44, narrowly edging out a senior from Chaparral at the finish line. Billy Duncan finished with a season’s and personal best time of 24:06.

The boys team really progressed and started to get things going midway through the season. Times improved overall from as little as 2 minutes to as much as 5 minutes quicker ... seeing their mile times and finishing times go down from the first meet to the last was impressive.

The full results are below: • Madison Newell, 40th, time of 24:47.

• Kirsten Meier, 43rd, 25:09. • Byron Johnson, 24th, 17:49 (PR).

• Colton Bettenbrock, 74th, 20:28.

• Jacob Togersen, 76th, 20:34 (PR).

• Trenton Holmes, 78th, 20:42 (PR).

• Aidan Johnson, 22:44, (PR). • Billy Duncan, 24:06, (PR).

"He (Byron Johnson) ran a great race, ran very smart, very measured, but in the end came up just a little bit short of his goal to qualify for state."