Contributing writer
By only three points, the Goessel High School Bluebirds boys’ cross-country team qualified for the state cross-country meet Saturday in Wamego.
Although Colony Crest had three runners finishing faster than Goessel’s top three, the team score is determined by the top four runners for each school. Senior Davis Cook led the team to the finish line with a 13th-place individual finish. It was the next three runners that sealed the spot at state with Grant Flaming, 19th; Nathan Czarnowsky, 21st; and Ben Wiens, 22nd place. The Bluebirds’ team points were 63 to Colony-Crest’s 66.
At the beginning of the season, first year head coach Tyler Schroeder whispered, so his team would not hear, “I really don’t know what to expect from this team. We have good chemistry, so good things could happen.”
And good things have happened. In the competitive regional meet, senior Flaming ran his second fastest time of the year, knowing that he probably would not qualify individually, but could go to state if the team finished in the top three.
Goessel senior Ali Buller was the only entry for Goessel on the girls’ race, and she finished with a 6th place medal which allows her to also compete at the state meet.
Boys’ 5-kilometer race
13. Cook, 19 minutes, 52.09 seconds.
19. Flaming, 20:36.11.
21. Czarnowsky, 20:57.08.
22. Wiens, 21:05.46.
26. Heath Goertzen, 21:21.11.
31. Jake Herrell, 21:54.51.
37. Zach Wiens, 22:48.12.
Girls’ 4-kilometer race
6. Ali Buller, 17:47.63.