EUREKA — Iola Middle School’s cross country runners took home multiple medals from a meet in Eureka on Tuesday. THE HIGH SCHOOL team was supposed to run on Thursday in Independence, but the meet was washed out. There will not be a make-up date.
The seventh grade girls started things off with a one mile race. Elysia Kunkler outran everyone for first place with a 6 minute and 17 second mile. Kelsey Morrison also earned a medal, placing third in 6:31. Rachel Bycroft just missed out on a top-10 finish, coming in 11th with a 7:17 mile.
“Elysia could not shake a Hartford runner, but out-sprinted her at the end to win by three seconds,” coach Marv Smith said. “Both Elysia and Kelsey’s times would have earned medals in the boys race.”
For the seventh grade boys, Elijah Fawson led Iola with a fourth place finish in 5:54. Brady Wiggins finished 17th in 6:53, River Hess finished 25th in 7:18, Jeremy Ridge finished 28th in 7:28 and Eason Cheung placed 34th in 8:14.
“Calvin Delich had been our number one runner until he injured his knee,” Smith said. “Our team finished fourth in the meet. Burlington won the boys team title.”
The eighth graders ran a two-mile meet. Natalie DeGrado was the lone eighth grade girl and placed ninth in 17:31.
For the boys, Jack Eyster led the team in 13th with a time of 14:51. He just crossed the finish line milliseconds before David Petty who placed 14th, with a time of 14:51. Jacob Burcham came in 27th in 17:11.
“The boys started out so slowly that they never gave themselves a chance to medal,” Smith said. “Besides giving the leaders a huge advantage in the first 400 yards, they had all of the congestion of the race to contend with. Jack and David had a wild sprint race at the end for almost 150 yards, but they should have expended some of the energy at the beginning.”
“The boys would have been a heavy favorite to win the first place team medals,” Smith said. “We had won at Central Heights, Fort Scott and the Doc Stiles meet.”
This was the second meet that the girls have lost out on entirely. Smith said he thought the team had a chance at the third-place medal.
Both the high school and middle school runners will compete at Garnett on Thursday.
IMS runners make their marks at Eureka meet
