Pierce High Cross Country
Bluejays Race for Gold – Cross Country
By Charlotte Enk
Pierce High won big on Thursday, October 2, on the Stanton Cross Country Invite.
Four girls were sent to the start, and Pierce High achieved two placings. Essynce Owens-Webb ran a 22:53.061 and took fifth place. Isabelle Kuehler ran a 25:07.975 and took a good 17th place.
“I thought about positive things and something other than the race, and it helped to calm down and also we, as a group, are good runners and I’m happy I made it so far with a good pace and I did not slow down,” Kuehler said.
With a time of 27:03.351 Lainey Jensen made 23rd place. The Bluejay with a time of 28:23.008 was Bailee Thelen, and she got 25th place. The team score from the girls is 70.
The boys team ended with the team score of 17, and ran with six good runners and Pierce High placed four times. Brenden Bolling got first place with a time of 17:35.030, and right behind him was Kendall Shada with a time of 17:51.470. In third place with a time of 17:52.655, was Kyle Abler.
”We had a slow 20 minute run on Wednesday and did some stretching and form running to warm us up. I like stretching because it relieves pain most easily. But mentally; we were just joking around and having a good time,” Abler said about his preparation.
Blaine Anson got 11th with a time of 19:06.839 and then shortly after that Carl Vogt was running in 25th with a time of 20:48.424. Finishing in 30th place with a time of 21:02.980 was Maxwell Weber.
Pierce High is very proud of that and wishes the Bluejays of the cross country team good luck the next time too.
Bluejays Run Their Way Through UNK
By Kendall Shada
The Pierce High cross country team traveled to the University of Nebraska Kearney to compete in the annual cross country meet on Monday, September 29.
“The team definitely could have done better, we were just not feeling it. The course is pretty tough, but it's preparing us for the state in a few weeks,” Kyle Abler, a senior on the team, says.
The boys had six runners, including Abler, who was the leader for the boys, placing 23rd with a finishing time of 18:09.66. Just a little after Abler was Kendall Shada, placing 27th with a time of 18:23.05. Blaine Anson was the next runner to finish for the Bluejays, placing 95th, with a time of 20:04.58. Carl Vogt placed 141st with a time of 20:57.41. Maxwell Weber placed 205th with a finishing time of 22:16.97. Brenden Bolling placed 287th with a time of 24:28.56.
On the girls side of things, Isabelle Kuehler finished 122nd with a finishing time of 26:35.43. Lainey Jensen finished with a time of 28:03.51, placing 148th.
“When you look at how the girls ran last year and how they ran this year, they did run faster times. You know, some of the boys ran faster times. Some of them did not, overall. You know, if I have to rank this in terms of how this meet compares with previous meets overall, it probably wasn't one of our better ones. We know what we have to do to improve upon our performance,” head coach Gary Shada says.
The Bluejay cross country team gets to go to O’Neill Country Club to compete in the Mid-State conference race on October 8.
