Both the Boys and Girls went to Lawrence to compete in the 3A State Cross Country meet this weekend. Coach Rod went in expecting that both teams would have a chance to come out of the event with wins. His athletes did not let him down as both boys and girls teams brought home the 3A State Championship!

The boys faced two time State Champions Halstead and the girls matched up to a very difficult Hiawatha group who was runner-up last year. Added to that fact was this was the first time the Eagles raced on the Rim Rock Farms in Lawrence and humid weather conditions definitely factored into the race.

Halstead was the biggest threat on the boys’ side of the competition. Coach Rod came up with a winning strategy to help his runners. He devised a plan that had his boys pace themselves in the first mile battle and work hard by the second mile, and finish strong by the third. By the time the boys were at the second mile the Eagles had three boys in the top ten spots and four to five were all battling the Halstead runners. Coach Rod said, “I caught the guys one more time before the finish maybe 800 meters or 1000 meters out and our first three were ahead of Halstead’s second man and our four and five guys were right behind their four and five guys. Our guys had them marked as well as we could. We executed the race plan perfectly. Miguel, Abraham and Ethan ran lights out to be in the top ten and our four-seven guys battled to the finish.”

For the girls the story was different. The weather had heated up and worried the staff. Coach Rod’s concerns were that the steep climbs by second and third miles would effect the girls due to them not being used to that type of course. The girls had the same approach as the boys strategy but coach Rod would say he thought they had been a little more conservative. One of the girls top runners, Katie Heger was not a hundred percent going into the day. Coach Rod said, “The biggest trouble in this race was figuring out who was not part of the team because there were a lot of good individuals in the race, so that was going to mess with the team scores.” Abby Heger stepped up for the Eagles and finished sixth and Rebecca Johnson missed All-State finishing twenty-first. “It was disappointing for Katy to not be on her top game but I think winning it all took that feeling away some. Our four -seven girls were pretty key in this effort as well. We had to have all seven finish, as I thought it was going to be a really close team score and it was. I kept yelling at Frances Gaskill that it could come down to a tie breaker and she made sure that she was ahead of Hiawatha’s number six runner as that was the tie breaker,” said coach Rod.

In all it was a great accomplishment for the veteran coach and his staff to bring back not one, but two State Championships to Hugoton. Coach Rod expressed his gratitude, “Coach Nik Barre and I were so proud of our kids Saturday. We want to thank all the support from parents, administration, alumni and friends who came out to see an historic run by our cross-country team. Not a bad way to finish our season, dual League Champions, dual Regional Champions, and now dual State Champions. A great accomplishment for the school and to our community. “

Congratulations Hugoton Eagles Cross Country Runners and Coaches!