WAC Dominates Hays Meet

The Liberal High School Cross Country Teams traveled to Hays Thursday for the Hays Invitational Cross Country Meet, along with 18 other schools. In the past the Hays course has been a favorite for many of the runners due to the faster times generally ran on it. However due to construction on Campus at FHSU this was the first year for the new course at the High School. This year didn’t seem to disappoint as some great times were posted on the course.
The Lady Skins got to start the day off by a 5^th place team finish in the 6A-5A division behind 3 other teams ranked in the state and highly respected Dodge City. Destyni Lucero lead the way for the Lady Skins with an impressive 5^th place finish, and a time of 15:00 for the 4K race. “Since records have been kept at LHS, 2008 – present that is the fastest time ran by a Lady Redskin, beating out her previous best of 15:28 ran last year. Mercy Perez was Liberals second runner placing 24^th in a time of 16:29. Sophomore, Janette Borunda came in 28^th place at 16:34. The next two scoring runners for the Lady Skins were Vanny Diazdeleon 42^nd , and Kayla Tran 50^th. Kim Francis came in 54^th, while Lesli Mendoza finished in 55^th. “It was great that most of the girls got to run some person best times, this race was a huge step in the right direction.” Commented Coach Katie Kline. Coach Toryn Olson thought “Todays course at Hays was a fast one, and combined with a break in the hot weather it allowed the girls team to start seeing the efforts of training easier at the beginning of the season. It was a great meet to launce into next week’s meet at KU.

The Redskins knew going into the race that the boys race was going to be competitive. This was the first meet of the year to have all teams from the Western Athletic Conference represented. Angel Viveros once again lead the way for the Redskins in 5^th place and a time of 17:26 for the 5K course. Sammy Obando outleaned teammate Daniel Frazier at the finish, as they ran 9^th and 10^th place with times of 17:37 and 17:38. Obed Quintana ran his personal best in 18:00, good enough for a 13^th place medal. Erving Altamarino crossed the line in 19:22 and in 40^th place while teammate Luis Medina was right behind him in 42^nd place and 19:25. Ricardo Bustos got Liberals last varsity spot with a time of 19:54 and 44^th place. After all was said and done, the Redskins finished a tight race in 2^nd place to help all the WAC schools take the top 5 team places. “It is awesome to see the WAC go 1^st through 5^th. For years its been the Easter Kansas Schools who have dominated the state in Cross Country. The steady rise in success is starting to bring a lot more recognition out to the Western part of the State.”

The Kansas Coaches released the second Cross Country Rankings of the season and the polls currently have the Lady Skins ranked 6^th in 5A, just ahead of fellow WAC members Great Bend and Hays. The Boys rankings have the Redskins sitting in the 5^th Spot. Both teams travel to Lawrence on the 22^nd for the famous Rim Rock Farm Classic, which currently has 122 teams listed to attend.

Team Places:
Girls Varsity – 1^st Garden City, 2^nd Maize South, 3^rd Great Bend, 4^th Dodge City, 5^th Liberal

Boys Varsity – 1^st Dodge City, 2^nd Liberal, 3^rd Hays, 4^th Garden City, 5^th Great Bend