The West Platte Blue Jays CC team took to flight at Kearney on a brisk Saturday morning. It was just chilly enough to make the athletes think about running hard and that thought seemed to help as a couple of runners set career PR's or set season PR's. Phillip Pattison and Charlie Kinslow continue to be the best one, two punch for an area Class 1 or 2 teams as they again both finished in the top 10 of a major meet. Phillip ran through the line in 7th place at 18:16 and Charlie was 8th coming in at 18:25. The course was wet and had substantial mud on it and this probably slowed the runners down by 30 seconds or so. Ryan Pattison ran the best time of his career, taking 20 seconds off his previous PR to finish 27 with a time of 19:25. Isaac Helmich continued to battle a sore calf but ran well enough to clock a 20:41 good for a 54th place finish and Hunter Sadell continues to improve taking a couple of seconds off his PR to finish 63 in 21:05. Hutch Bartee ran 6th for the Jays in 21:39 and Coy Taylor rounded out the team finishing just short of a season-best at 23:09. The team finished 5th overall out of 20 schools just 32 points behind Lawson for 4th place. Tristan Newkirk ran in the JV race and battled against a sore ankle to run a time of 24:39. The kids continue to work hard and improve each week. They are striving to get back to state as a class 2 school and their improvement shows their hard work.
The overall team was without Lexi Elmore on this day as she was out of town but they were led by Bella Clark who ran a solid race to finish 39th overall in a time of 24:11 which is her 2nd best time of the year. Sophia Rush ran hard and finished 46th in a season-best 24:45 and Katie Groom ran her 3rd race of the season and finished with a 25:56. Gaia Carugati battled some leg and ankle pain to a time of 26:27 which was less than a second off her PR. She was followed by Addison Rinehart in 5th for the Blue Jays who ran a time of 28:18 her second-best of the season. Olivia Marquart ran hard for the ladies and finished 6th for them season-best 29:49, and Laura Hill took some time away from the softball field to run and she ran 30:39 in her first race ever.
Both teams are looking forward to the WP Invitational/KCI conference meet which will be held next Saturday, Oct. 19 at Platte Ridge Park. The varsity girls will run at 9:00 sharp, followed by the varsity boys about 9:35 with JV and a middle school race to follow after that. I hope to see all the Blue Jays fans there.