Longhorn runners, from left, Macy Coleman, Brooklyn Christensen and Lindsey Mendenhall pace themselves together during last week’s Longhorn invitational. (Johnson Publications photo)
Longhorn fans cheer on Will Kuenne as he holds off Ogallala’s Jack Lindgren at the finish line in the Longhorns’ own invitational at the Imperial golf course last Thursday. (Johnson Publications photo)
Girls finish second in tiebreaker at home meet
Chase County’s girls cross country team just missed their second win in as many starts last week, finishing behind North Platte after a tiebreaker in the Chase County Invitational last Thursday at the Imperial Country Club.
Both St. Pat’s and Chase County finished with 38 team points, counting each team’s top four runners. The Irish won the tie breaker because their fifth runner was 20th versus Chase County’s, who was 29th.
Head Coach Carl Zuege said it was an important lesson, especially for the younger members of the team, on just how important every place is.
It makes a difference coming into the final stretch whether one of the Longhorns passes the runner in front of them or is the one getting passed, Zuege noted.
The Longhorns’ home meet was a competitive meet on both the girls’ and boys’ sides. In fact, only one point separated the top three teams in the girls’ race.
A total of 81 competed in the girls’ high school race with 102 competing in the boys’ race. The junior high race drew another 55 boys and girls.
Senior Kaley Hauxwell led the Longhorn girls with a fourth place finish. Sophomore Maddie Brown took the 10th place medal. He said both ran very strong.
He said his younger girls on the team were feeling some nerves, wanting to do well run at their own meet.
Zuege said some of his jayvee runners have been running well in the first two meets and some will get the shot to move up to varsity.
The jayvees finished fifth overall as a team.
Kuenne notches second win
On the boys’ side of the meet, senior Will Kuenne turned in another fine run, holding off a challenge from Ogallala’s Jack Lindgren at the finish line.
It was a satisfying win for Kuenne, Zuege said, because he really wanted to win at his own meet. It was also a good benchmark because Lindgren finished 10th in the Class C state meet last year.
Zuege said Kuenne’s success thus far goes back to how hard he worked on his conditioning in the summer, getting the miles in.
“Nobody’s worked as hard as Will has. As a coach, you’re really happy for him because of all the time and effort he put in,” Zuege added.
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