The Hugoton High School Cross Country teams traveled to Hays High Saturday to participate in the Regional qualifying meet. The top three teams and the top ten individual runners automatically qualified to the State meet that will be next weekend in Wamego. Saturday both the boys and girls teams from Hugoton came away with the Regional championships. “This was the third time this has happened since I have been coach and the first since 2003. Regional championships do not come easily. Heading into the meet we thought that the boys were the team to beat so we expected to win the Region. The girls was unexpected. We thought Clay Center was the team to beat. They have been running well all year and placed well back at the Wamego Invitational,” said Coach Nick Rodriguez. The girls ran very well at Regionals. The team had two freshman really have big time runs. Victoria Duran and Abby Heger ran extremely well on the right day! Two upperclassmen did what was needed from them. Sarah Johnson and Katy Heger ran well. “It was expected from those two. Katy is not 100% healthy so we will try to get her rolling for the State meet. The rest of the girls ran well. Totally unexpected that we got first!,” commented Coach Rodriguez. The boys ran very well led by Issac Castro. He was the individual Regional Champion. The team also had three other guys in the top 15, Reed Rome, Miguel Martinez, and Abraham Garcia. Zack Littell finished in the top 25. “That makes you really tough to beat when you have that many up front. One of the interesting things that happened at this meet was that every single kid on the team ran their personal best time. They did it at the right time,” said Rodriguez. Next weekend the State meet is at Wamego golf course. The girls are scheduled to run at 11:30 a.m. and the boys at 1:45 p.m. The boys look to battle it out with Baldwin, Desoto, Towanda Circle, Girard and El Dorado for team trophies. The girls look to battle it out with Baldwin, Clay Center, Chanute, Andover Central, Wichita Trinity and Towanda Circle for the top spots. The girls team side is really loaded. Regional Individual Results Girls Varsity Victoria Duran 19:51 6 Sarah Johnson 19:57 8 Katy Heger 20:19 12 Abby Heger 20:20 13 Maria Martinez 20:42 21 Mariana Shuck 21:29 37 Rebecca Johnson 21:33 39 Team Place First Boys Varsity Issac Castro 15:50 1 Reed Rome 16:34 5 Miguel Martinez 16:46 8 Abraham Garcia 16:53 13 Zack Littell 17:14 24 Ethan Fox 17:42 38 Ivan Villa 17:50 44 Team Place First