By Doug Eaton
The Jenks Trojans cross country teams traveled out of state last week and competed in the prestigious Southern Stampede held on the campus of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
This meet attracts the top cross country teams from around the Midwest , including many from the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas, several from across the states of Arkansas and Kansas as well as some familiar foes from the Tulsa area. The meet serves as a good barometer of how the local teams stand in terms of competing against the better programs from this area.
The Trojans should be glad to know that they compare well against the best from this area.
The Trojan boys finished seventh overall in the boys' large school team competition (out of 35 teams) while the Trojan girls finished ninth (out of 32 teams).
In the boys' team race, Potosi, Missouri captured the team championship. They were followed by Blue Springs, MO.; Lees Summit, MO.; Lees Summit West, MO.; Lebanon, MO.; Saint Thomas Aquinas from Overland Park, KS.; and then Jenks.
Tulsa Union finished ninth, Broken Arrow came in fifteenth and Sapulpa came in sixteenth.
Reese Jackson again led the Trojan boys coming in 26th overall and covering the 5K course in a time of 16:53.
Jared James came in 41st in 17:09 and was closely followed by Ryan Fischer who finished 43rd in 17:10. Shawn Dolan finished in 50th place in 17:24 and Dylan Moore came in 61st in 17:30 to complete the Trojan scoring.
Kyle Burns ran 17:37 for 70th place and Trey Newsome was the Trojans' seventh man coming in 98th in 18:15.
In the girls large school division, Olathe, KS East won the team championship. Bentonville, AR.; Eureka, MO.; Lebanon, MO.; Blue Springs, MO.; Lees Summit West, MO.; Emporia, KS.; Rock Bridge, MO., ands then the Jenks girls claimed the top spots in the team race.
The Lady Trojans had two runners claiming spots in the top 15 as Grace Skocik took first place honors among the Trojans, coming in seventh place overall in 19:30 and Lauren Wienecke captured 15th place overall in 19:45.
Amy McCarthy finished 57th in 21:01; Kim Schauer was 84th in 21:31. She was closely followed by Jacquelyn Skocik in 19:36 which was good enough for 88th place.
Anna Barber and Grace Martin came in 103rd and 104th in 21:58.2 and 21:58.4, respectively.
The next competition for the Trojan cross country teams will be Saturday at the Holland Hall Invitational. The JV girls are scheduled to run at 10:00 am, the varsity girls at 10:25, the JV boys at 10:45 and the varsity boys will run at 11:15.