By DANTON MCDIFFETT
Assistant Cross Country Coach
HESSTON -- The Hesston Swather Special is a highlight for high school cross country teams because instead of being divided into varsity and junior varsity squads, the runners compete against fellow freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. A chilly, overcast meet on Thursday saw the majority of Salina Central’s runners improve their times over last week’s Manhattan meet.
William Griffith won the Junior Boys division for 4A-6A schools with a time of 17:04. Isaac French finished 10th in 18:02. Alex Shea’s 20:45 was good enough for 27th place.
In the Junior Girls division, Cora White and Araceli Davila competed well, finishing in 10th and 11th, respectively. White’s time was 21:55, with Davila close behind at 22:03. Elizabeth Young ran 24:27 to place 25th.
Zack Tibbits was the only sophomore boy to run for the Mustangs. He finished 4th in 18:05. On the girls side, sisters Amelia and Alison Coykendall placed 36th and 37th respectively, with times of 33:15 and 37:17.
Two freshmen barely missed cracking the top 10 in their races. Elle Denning’s 22:32 placed her 11th, while Cooper Affholder ran 19:42 to finish 12th for the boys. Brooke Shea put up a time of 25:11 for 21st place. Angel Mendenhall gained her first high school cross country experience, finishing 37th with a time of 31:58. On the boys side, Nick Carano finished 40th in 31:12.
Three senior Mustangs ran, with Emily Strommen’s 25:35 placing her 24th for the girls. For the boys, Ryan Sheahon came in 28th in 21.02 and Shawn Pyeatt was 34th in 27:32.
The Mustangs’ small numbers hurt them in the team results. The girls placed 9th with 77 points; the boys were 10th with 116.
Next Thursday will see Central traveling west for the Hays Invitational.